For Mary
by drakesandmarvel
Summary: A year after Sam, Nate and Sully went looking for Avery's treasure, Nate has come back to a somewhat normal life with his wife Elena, pregnant with their 1st child. Sam and Sully, on the other end, kept on going after lost cities, treasures and artifacts across the globe. For one of their many jobs, Sully decides to reach out to Nora, a freelance journalist and treasure hunter.
1. Stargazer

It was a warm night in San Francisco and a particularly beautiful one at that. As usual, the Castro was wide awake but louder as it was June and the LGBTQ+ community of SF had a habit of going out every night during Pride month. From her window, Nora could hear people laughing, singing and talking loudly, keeping her from sleeping. She groaned and turned around in her bed to take a look at the time. The LED screen of her alarm clock showed 3:19 P.M. Nora sighed and turned again to face the ceiling. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, hoping that would help her fall asleep. As she started to drift, her phone ringed, and she opened her eyes suddenly. She sat up, a disappointed and angry look on her face.

"Goddamnit, do people not know it's impolite to call at 3:00 P.M?", she muttered, taking her phone in her hand sloppily. She had had a rough and exhausting day at work, all she wanted to do was get some sleep. All the sleep she could have. She didn't even bother looking at the caller ID and answered the phone. "Whoever you are you better have a good fucking reason to bother me this late." She spat, not even thinking about how offensive she could be.

"Uhm...hi?" She recognized the voice instantly and let out a sigh.

"Oh. Victor. Sorry. I had a terrible day and I've been trying to sleep for about four hours now. What time is it where you are?"

"It's alright, kid. And we're in the middle of the afternoon."

"Well, that explains the late night call...", she said to herself. "What do you want?"

"Well, I just wanted to know what you had planned for the next month. I stumbled across this new job and I thought you might wanna join me and my partner for this one."

Nora sighed. Sully only came to her for hunts regarding ancient civilizations and pirates, as those precise topics in history were the ones she liked the most and knew the most about. She even did a documentary about ancient Egypt for History channel.

"I'd love to...but I'm already onto something and I've been making huge progress so...maybe next time, huh ?"

Usually, she never refused to go on treasure hunts with Victor. She loved it more than anything else in the world. It made her feel alive, and real. The thrill of finding something that would have an impact on the way we knew history was one of her favorite feelings. But, as she told the older man, she was already working on something. Something that mattered a lot to her. When Sully answered, she could hear the disappointment in his voice, and it made her feel a little guilty. But she wanted to find something of her own for once.

The two said goodbye over the phone, and she hung up, putting her phone back on the nightstand. Now she definitely would not be able to fall asleep. She got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. There, she turned the light on and stared at her reflection in the mirror. There were huge dark circles under her eyes, her shoulder-length brown hair was messy and she looked like she was high on heroin or some other kind of hard drug. She reached for the pills that were on the side of the sink and swallowed two of them. She then glanced at the bottle. The label read "Prozac". She let out a long sigh when she saw it and put the bottle away quickly before going back to her bed. The pills she had just taken wouldn't do anything for her sleep, but they made her feel better. At least that's what she had told herself.

The next morning, Nora was irritable. She had slept for about an hour and felt like shit. She took a flask full of whiskey with her at work, hoping it would make her feel slightly better. Nora worked as a freelance journalist but found a more stable job at the museum, where she worked as a guide. Not that being a freelance journalist didn't pay well, but it only did when someone hired her or bought her articles. Which was not the case lately. Once she got to the museum, she changed into her work clothes, took a sip from her flask and headed for her first tour of the day: a group of kids. God, it's going to be an awfully long day.

A few tours after, she finally had her first real break. An hour and a half to eat and study the clues she gathered for her next big discovery. Nora was tracking down a treasure related to the legendary female pirate Anne Bonny, one of her favorite historical character. When she was little, her father told her a story saying that Anne Bonny and her pirate girlfriend Mary Read had their own little treasure: a chest they stole from one captain Hudson, and that held gems, gold coins, and secret letters.

She started to look for it a few years before but stopped abruptly when she had a...disagreement with her partner, Andrew. But after Sully told her the entire story of how Nathan found the treasure of Henry Avery and found out about the real death of the 12 founders of Libertalia, she thought to herself that she couldn't let go. She had worked on it for 3 years straight before giving up, and now she wouldn't let anyone else get to it before she did.

Like every day, she read all the letters and the legal papers regarding Anne Bonny and Mary Read. She had bought most of these letters to collectors and treasure hunters she contacted thanks to Sully. There was one letter that got her attention more than the others, it was the last one Bonny wrote to Read. In it, Anne confessed her love and loyalty to Mary one last time, promising she would keep on doing what they did before they got arrested and honor her memory. She also talked about their treasure chest, saying she would protect and cherish it until her last breath.

But the most interesting part came at the end of the letter. Bonny signed with her initials, and next to those were words in an old version of Spanish, at least that was what Nora deducted. She had spent weeks, days and hours trying to translate them, being able to figure out almost every word, except for one. But that was it, that day she managed to get all the words approximately right. The sentence said: "Pieces of our love rest where land is only hanging by a thread".

"Okay... now what the hell is that supposed to mean?" She murmured, an annoyed tone in her voice.

She was getting tired of all these riddles. They had already led her all over the Carribean the first time she searched, and she didn't find anything there, except for other clues and more riddles and dead ends. She sighed, letting her head rest on the pile of papers lying on the table. She closed her dark green eyes and took a deep breath. I am never gonna find this stupid treasure chest because I suck and I'm a mess, she thought as she was starting to fall asleep. But the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly behind her had her waking up in a startle.

"Holy crap!" She nearly screamed, turning around to face the mysterious someone. It was one of her colleagues, Daniel. He was looking at her with a slight smirk. "You almost gave me a heart attack! Don't you ever do something like that again or I swear I'll crush you." She said with a threatening tone.

"Yeah sure, I believe you." He chuckled. Daniel was much taller than Nora and worked out every single day. He was a big pile of muscles, and even with all the training in the world, Nora could never crush him. Or even hurt him, for that matter. "Anyway, I just came by to tell you your break had been shortened by 30 minutes. There is a hell of a lot of people in there today and the boss wants us at full capacity so...I'm sorry but your little nap time's over." He said with a small smile before heading back to the museum's hall.

Nora sighed and rubbed her eyes. She was starting to think she had seriously pissed some God off as They/He/She seemed to always find a reason to keep her away from sleeping. She slowly took all of her papers and put them back into her bag, making sure the one with the very important - and very annoying - riddle was on top. She took one last sip from her whiskey flask and headed back to the hall. There, she was immediately given the responsibility of a new tour. God, she was tired of this job and of the tours and of people constantly asking stupid questions she had just answered a few minutes earlier. All she wanted to do was quit and sleep. Forever, if possible.

When she got back to the place she shared with her older sister, Marnie, and her girlfriend, Nora threw her bag on the floor and let herself fall on the couch, letting out a groan. Her sister was behind the kitchen isle and glanced at her quickly.

"Rough day?" She asked nicely.

"That's a bit of an understatement." She answered, sounding extremely tired. "I can't do this anymore." She sat up on the couch and looked at her sister. "I quitted today. Please don't be mad."

"What!? Nora you...you need a job. I need you to have a job to pay rent, Olivia and I can't pay it on our own! We need you to have a steady income to help us. I mean, we have to pay back our loan for the bar and the one for the car...you better find something real quick if you want to stay here." Marnie clearly sounded annoyed and angry at her little sister.

Marnie and her girlfriend of 7 years, Olivia, had bought a bar in the neighborhood a few years before, making their dream come true. Business was going great but they didn't make enough money to pay back their two loans and pay the entire rent. Olivia worked as a preschool teacher, which didn't pay that much, so Marnie offered her sister the spare bedroom when she left New York, but only if she promised to pay half the rent every month. Nora gladly accepted the deal as her career was at an all-time high, but one year later things weren't so great. She couldn't find anyone to buy her articles or to hire her, her depression was taking every will to do things away from her and she was slowly turning into a walking mess. She sighed at her sister's words. She had heard the drill too many times before from her other sister, Rose, when she lived at her apartment in New York.

"I know, I'm sorry...what if I told you I may be onto something that could get me a lot of money?"

"What are you talking about?" Her sister asked when she saw the grin on Nora's face. She knew exactly what that meant. "Nora...no. You're not going out there looking for some treasure that doesn't exist. Not again. Not after last time. Do I need to remind you what happened?"

"Marnie, this time, I swear I'm close to finding it and -" She was cut off by her sister, who was talking louder than her.

"You almost died three times when you were last looking for it, you're not going back! Who talked you into this anyway? Is it Victor? Nathan? Or Andrew? Is Andrew talking to you again? Did he find you? It better not be Andrew 'cause I swear Nora if it's him I'm gonna lock you in your room, find him and crush his skull with a rock." Marnie said fast, not allowing her younger sibling to cut her off.

"Jesus Marnie let me talk for a second will ya?" Nora sighed, visibly annoyed that her sister jumped to conclusions without letting her explain. "No one talked me into this. Not Victor, not Nathan, and certainly not Andrew. I can assure you I'm not working with this psycho ever again. It was my initiative. I truly want to find Anne Bonny's treasure. And if I do, it's going to be just me. Alone."

"That's even worse. At least when Victor and Nathan are around they can keep an eye on you, but alone...you'll get yourself killed somehow. I'm all for you getting a shitload of money but I don't want you to get back to treasure hunting. Find some legal way to do it or something but...please, I'm begging you, don't go."

Nora noticed the tone of her sister's voice. She was genuinely concerned about the idea of Nora going treasure hunting again. But she couldn't help it. She was bored and broke, and close to Anne Bonny's treasure. So she was going to find it.

"...Fine, I'm not going." She lied but was so convincing her sister believed it.

She hugged Marnie and headed to her bedroom, extremely tired. She immediately reached for her laptop, turned it on and started looking for answers concerning her riddle. She was not going to give up that easily, even when that meant disappointing her family again.


	2. In,Out

Chapter 2: In/Out

It was about 4 p.m in Panama City when Nora's plane landed, after a seven hour flight from San Francisco. The bright and aggressive sun was what caught her attention first, and she wondered how she was going to survive the impressive heat of the Carribean. But her mind quickly focused on the thing she was there for in the first place: Anne Bonny and her treasure.

She had figured out the riddle by reading an old book about piracy that referred to Panama, the narrowest country of the Americas, as "the thread that keeps South and Central America together". Just as she found the answer, she booked a flight for Panama and left a "I'm sorry please don't hate me" note for her sister. Not that it was gonna be enough for her to be forgiven anyway, but at least it was something.

So there she was, melting in the Panamanian spring heat, bargaining in a perfect and fluent Spanish with a man who wanted to charge her extra for her rental car, and more impatient than ever before. She just couldn't wait any longer to find out more about the chest and was hoping to finally find it as soon as she could, to brag about it to Sully, Nathan and her family.

A couple of hours later, the young brown haired woman arrived in the small town of Isla Blanca, a historical port famous for being a pirate haven during the golden age of piracy, and Anne Bonny & Mary Read's favorite stop in the south of the Carribean sea. She was looking for an old fort where the two women allegedly planned most of their heists and robberies, and which was ever since used as a sort of museum about piracy in Panama.

Museum meant security. And security meant that she couldn't just take what she needed from the fort and leave without a scratch. Of course not. She had to break into the museum at night, inspect all of the artifacts and letters kept in there, and steal the ones that might be useful to her. Of course it had to be complicated.

As she walked into the museum legally to locate where what she needed was, she spotted a few cameras she'd have to hack in order to go in and out as unnoticed as possible. Fortunately, there was no alarm in the building. She also spotted the places that guards were positioned at, thinking that theses places were holding precious artifacts that were going to be watched over at nighttime. After a while she entered a room dedicated to Anne Bonny and figured it was her goal for the night. In the center of the room was some kind of golden trophy, covered in rubies and gems, with words in Latin written on it. She couldn't translate it all on the spot so she took a picture, thinking she could do that back at her hotel. But as she leaned as close to the artifact as she could, she spotted a nearly unseeable separation between the bottom of the trophy and the body of it. She figured it was probably one of the trophies Bonny talked about in her letters, and that it was hiding something. So Nora decided that she was going to steal that trophy tonight.

When the night fell on Isla Blanca, the museum/fort closed its doors to visitors. Nora was in position in a very dark enclosed alley behind the fort, and just waited for one of the basement windows that was there to be clear. The basement was added to the construction later on and was where the objects were stored and inspected. There were only a few windows to it, just enough for the historians to work without the natural light damaging anything. Nora would quickly get in through one of them as she saw that security down there was very minimal, as just one guard was watching the place.

The second the light disappeared from the window, Nora opened it quickly and got in without any issue, thanks to what her uncle had taught her about breaking into places. Nora was actually an excellent thief, and was rarely spotted when she illegally entered buildings. She made sure to be hidden behind a shelf in case the guard had heard her, and took out her laptop to start hacking the security cameras that were situated only upstairs. Nora frowned when she noticed that most of cameras were already hacked and that she didn't have anything more to do about them.

"The fuck…" She breathed out in surprise. If there's one thing she expected to happen, it certainly wasn't that. She decided to just go with it and not ask anymore questions. That was a great thing for her, so she wouldn't complain. But she was still a little worried. Why were the cameras already out? Was someone in there already?

The light brown skinned girl headed upstairs to the main galleries after she quickly went through everything in the basement. There was nothing valuable to her there, and she didn't want to waste her time, so she went straight to the second floor and Anne Bonny's room.

The trophy was still there, in the middle of the room, on its pedestal. One of the lights of the room was still on, shining on the trophy, emphasizing the size and beauty of the gems and the gold. Nora thought it was a terrible move from the direction of the museum, as it would make it a target of choice for eventual thieves. She laughed quietly and proceeded to open the glass carefully. Just as she was about to do so, Nora felt some kind of presence creeping behind her, quickly followed by a voice.

"You shouldn't be out there that late, sweetheart."

The second the words hit her ear, Nora turned around to face the man who dared calling her "sweetheart". She was surprised to see a middle-aged white man, maybe in his forties, his brown hair slicked back, four flying birds tattooed on his neck. He was dressed as a guard. Key word here being "dressed as". She understood immediately that he wasn't one when she heard his thick American and his slight Boston accent. A light smirk appeared on her lips and she raised one of her eyebrows as she stared straight into the man's hazel eyes.

"You shouldn't be here either. It's quite easy to see that you're not a guard, even after all the effort you put in looking like one. I hope the real guard you stole the uniform from won't remember you or you're in big trouble."

The man raised an eyebrow as well, surprised and slightly amused by the girl's nerves. She was good. But she wanted the same thing he did, so he wasn't going to play nice with her. He let out a light laugh and grabbed the girl's wrists, putting handcuffs on them. He then tried to push her away from the trophy, but she didn't let him act without putting up a fight. She lifted her knee defensively and threw her fists in front of her face, a threatening look on her face.

"Trophy's mine, pendejo. Handcuffed or not I'm the one leaving the building with it. You can have anything else, but this," she pointed the trophy behind her, her menacing gaze still locked onto the man's face "you touch it and I swear I'm going to be way less friendly."

He smirked, looking up and down at the girl. She was fairly small compared to him, maybe 1m65, and didn't look very strong. He could knock her out really quick, and she probably wouldn't be able to even touch him. But he quite liked her temper and was curious, so he'd let her try.

"Excuse me, I think you're in the way." He tried to grab her arms and she took this opportunity to wrap the handcuffs around the back of his neck, bringing his head down to her knee and hitting his nose with it. The man was in shock and let out a scream when his nose hit her knee. It was broken, they both knew it. He was knocked out for a few seconds, and Nora didn't waste time breaking the glass and running away with the trophy, tucking it in the bag she brought. She ran as fast as she could, but was still careful to avoid the guards. She eventually hid in the bathroom, cursing silently. What the hell did just happen? She thought, replaying the events in her mind. She was about to check the perimeter to see if she had a window to escape, when she heard steps in the corridor.

"Shit, shit, shit." She muttered, trying to remain as hidden as possible. After a while, the steps just went away and she heard the person whispering some curse words. She decided to take this chance to go and managed to walk out of the building unnoticed, the trophy in a bag and her hands still cuffed.

The morning after, Nora woke up with an intense pain in her wrists due to the handcuffs still being on her. She grunted and opened her eyes, seeing the desk covered by papers and the trophy standing on them. She had spent the entire night trying to figure out how to open or decode the trophy, but her efforts remained unsuccessful. She had started to think that maybe there was nothing to it and that it was just another dead end. So she went to bed to put the tiring and eventful night behind her, hoping to find something the day after.

She got out of bed and smoked a cigarette or two, trying to figure out how she was going to take her handcuffs off. She was running out of options and the last one she had was her least favorite: finding the man who put the cuffs on her in the first place, and negotiate with him so he'd set her free. After all, he was trying to get the trophy too so maybe he knew what to do with it. Maybe she could offer him to work with her on the trophy if he let her wrists free. Of course their collaboration wouldn't be meant to last.

With this idea in mind and the determination to have full use of her arms and hands and to find the treasure, Nora walked out of her hotel room, wearing the same clothes as the night before, considering the cuffs made it nearly impossible for her to undress, and started to look for the stranger.

As she went around town asking about the man, she heard the news of a break-in at the museum and of a missing artifact. She was sitting at the terrace of a small café, listening to the people sitting next to her talk about the robbery. She chuckled lightly when she heard them talk about a "sophisticated robbery", when it really was an improvised job. Nothing had happened according to plan except for her entrance in the place. She hadn't noticed the man sitting in the seat facing hers, smirking in expectation of their conversation. When she turned to put her cup down on the table, she almost jumped at the sight of the man she'd been looking for all morning.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you there, sweetheart." He said with the same smirk on his face and a slightly arrogant tone in his voice.

"How did you know I was here? And please stop calling me that. I don't know you, you don't know me, so just stop it." She said, visibly annoyed by the man's arrogance.

"I didn't know. I just came here for a coffee and saw you so I thought I'd say hi. Plus I think you have something I need. And I have something you might want." He said, wiggling a set of keys in front of Nora's face, pointing her handcuffs with his chin. "You give me access to the trophy, I free you out of the cuffs. Must've been weird walking around wearing these all morning. And also wearing the all-black outfit. I bet the combination earned you a few looks from people around here."

"Yeah, I guess people are not used to see this kind of shit around here. Weird." She answered sarcastically, before looking at the man with a more serious face. "In other news, I was about to offer the same thing. I actually spent my entire morning looking for you."

"Oh. I made that much of an impression? I have to say I'm a little surprised, usually girls like to talk to me a little more before chasing me."

"Yeah I just can't get enough of you. God you're annoying. I kinda regret breaking your nose last night cause I can't do it again now."

"About that, it really hurts, you know?" The man said, pouting.

"I'll give you some painkillers. Now if we could just get on with the freeing me and decoding the damn trophy part, that'd be good." Nora said, standing up, leaving the money for her coffee and trying to hide her wrists from the people surrounding them.

"After you, sweetheart."

"Goddamnit, I already told you to stop with this damn name. Or you can kiss the trophy goodbye." She started walking, the man closely following her.

"And you can kiss your wrists goodbye."

"Shit. Touché."

"Yeah. My name's Sam by the way"

"Nora."

The pair spent the afternoon locked in Nora's room, trying to discover what the trophy was hiding. They argued about it most of the time, having different ideas and theories as to what to do with it. They smoked a lot too, mainly to get the stress and frustration of failing off their backs.

"I'm telling you filling it up with water is just going to damage it, for fuck's sake!" Nora almost yelled at Sam, who sighed heavily, annoyed.

"And I'm telling you filling it up with water is the key to it!" He answered, surprisingly calm compared to her.

"Goddamnit, would you just listen to me?"

"Not when you say this kind of shit. We tried everything you suggested, and nothing worked. How about we go with my idea for once, huh?"

"It's a terrible idea and you know it. This thing is in gold and it's over 300 years old, we can't just put water in it without knowing the consequences and hope for the best, that's not how it works!"

"How can we know if we don't at least try?"

Nora was about to say something when Sam's phone started to ring. They both looked at each other in despair, before Sam stood up from his chair and picked up his cell. He smiled lightly when he saw the caller ID and put the object to his ear, while Nora looked outside the window and lit up a cigarette.

"Hey Victor. How you doing?" The name caught Nora's attention. She turned around to look at Sam, an eyebrow raised. "Yeah sorry I didn't warn you but something came up. Remember the girl I told you about yesterday night? Yeah, the one from the museum. Well, I found her and she let me have access to the trophy. We're in her hotel room right now, she doesn't want it to leave the place." He turned to look at her and chuckled, probably at something the man on the other side said. He took his time to scan her body, his eyes roaming up and down. "Not I didn't sleep with her, but she doesn't look too bad so why not?" Nora frowned and mouthed a 'fuck you', accompanied by a middle finger. The gesture made Sam laugh. "It's just a joke sweetheart, relax. Huh? Not, I was just talking to her. She's a bit tense so...yeah. Stop whining. I mean I know it's not Cuba but...you know what, when all of this is over we're going back there, and I'll buy you a brand new pack of cigars. And some of those ugly shirts you love so much." Nora frowned again, realizing who he was probably talking to. She put down her cigarette and started pacing around, wondering how she could've missed this. "Alright. See you later." He turned to look at his temporary partner and was surprised to see her constantly running her hand in her hair, muttering curse words over and over. "You okay?"

"What did you say your name was again?" She asked quickly.

"Huh...Sam. Sam Drake. Why?"

"Drake?" Her head shot up when she heard Sam's last name. "Like Nathan Drake?"

"Yeah, he's my brother. You know him?"

"We worked on a few things together, he was here for my first job, actually. He's almost family. Shit, how could I miss this?" She stopped and let herself fall on the bed, her head in her hands.

"Okay...what's going on here?"

"Your partner, what's his name?"

"Víctor Sullivan. But I don't know what that has to do with the trophy or...anything else. You know him too?"

"Ah, shit...yeah. We work together sometimes and, uh...he's my uncle."


	3. Holy Water

Summary:

Direct follow-up to the previous chapter. Nora's plans are changed after her uncle gets in the mix.

Notes:

Hey y'all. So chapter 3 is finally here (yay). It took me forever to write, I did not know where I wanted to go with this so...yeah. It's pretty messy and I'm not totally satisfied, but it was the only way I found to push the story forward. I'll explain more next chapter so it's less confusing. Also I'm sorry about the insane amount of dialogue in this chapter but, as I said above, I had no idea on how to write this so I took the easiest way.

Anyways, I have a ton of ideas for this fic (esp for Sam & Nora's relationship haha) so stay tuned, you will not regret it.

As always, english is not my 1st language so sorry for the mistakes/bad wording/simple vocabulary and all.

Hope you'll enjoy this chapter anyways, and if you do, please leave a comment/kudos and tell your friends about it! Or just your mutuals! Tell people basically. Or don't, I mean you're free to do whatever you want (but it would mean a lot if you spread the word).

Much love.

"He's your...what?" Sam looked at her, wide-eyed and surprised by this revelation.

"Uncle. As in he is my father's brother." She explained slowly, still stunned by her realization. So her uncle, Victor Sullivan, was here. And he was looking for the same treasure as her.

"So what you're saying is, I joked with Victor about having sex with his niece."

"Oh, yeah. You did that. I hope for you that he forgot about that part." She scoffed. "You should tell him to get over here. But don't tell him I'm here. I want it to be a surprise." Sam lifted a brow at her. "What? I like to see the look on people's faces when I surprise them." She shrugged. "Just do it."

"Alright." He picked up his phone and texted his partner the address of the hotel and the room number, saying he needs him asap.

The two spent time talking, mainly about Victor and the jobs he and Nora did together, until a knock on the door was to be heard. Sam stood up from the chair and opened the door. Victor Sullivan stood there, a cigar in his mouth and a curious look on his face.

"So? What do you need me for?"

"I'll tell you inside," Sam said, stepping aside to let his partner come inside the room. Victor's eyes fell immediately on the female figure sitting in a corner, plunged in darkness. His eyes widened as the light grazed the woman's face, revealing the familiar smile of his beloved niece.

"Hey, Sully." She said softly, standing up and slowly walking towards him.

"Jesus kid, what are you doing here?"

"Looks like we're after the same thing, for a change."

She went in for a hug, stretching her arms in front of her, motioning with her still handcuffed hands for Victor to come over. He hugged her happily, gently stroking her hair. They stayed like that for a while, seemingly not wanting to let go. Stam stood awkwardly next to them, not knowing what to do. He eventually just cleared his throat to remind them of his presence and encourage them to let go and focus on the trophy. It worked as the two broke apart and smiled at each other.

"So...I get that it's a cute family reunion thing but there's still a trophy we need to work with if we want to find Anne Bonny's treasure…" Sam muttered.

"I haven't seen you in a goddamn year, kid. How's life?" Sully asked his niece, ignoring Sam who just sighed, grabbed a cigarette on the desk and went to the window to smoke.

"Oh, you know, it's not easy but I make it work somehow. You? Still running around the world looking for shiny things?"

"Yes, dear. Not planning on stopping anytime soon. Not now that I've got a new partner." The old man said, shifting his gaze to his partner who stood by the window, a cigarette between his lips.

"About that, you could've chosen better." A light chuckle escaped Nora's lips.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, seemingly vexed by the comment.

"He's arrogant, annoying and his nose is insanely easy to break." She carried on, ignoring Sam once again.

"Wait, you did that to his nose?"

"Yeah. With my knee, just like you taught me. Why? What did he tell you?"

"He said he got into a fight with three guards while running after you."

"Really?" Nora couldn't help but laugh and look at the man. "You ashamed a girl broke your nose or what?"

"It's not that. And it's not that much of an exploit anyway, it's been broken a few times already so it's fragile." Sam mumbled, his voice low and filled with embarrassment.

"Then what is it?"

"Just...shut up."

"Oh my God. This is amazing." The brown-haired girl was still laughing at him, amused by the situation.

"How about we get back to the trophy, huh? We're wasting time here."

"As much as I enjoy this situation, he's right," Victor said, pointing to the trophy, still standing on the desk. "What do we have here?"

"Hm, not much actually." She moved to lean on the wall, a small sigh escaping her lips. "We were trying to figure out how to decode or open it but…"

"But nothing works." Sam finished her sentence, a long sigh escaping his lips and his eyes returning to look at the mysterious and beautiful trophy. "I have an idea of how to, uh, unveil its secrets, but your niece here doesn't want to go with it." His hand pointed at Nora, but his eyes didn't move from the golden object.

"Because, as I already explained, it could damage the thing! It's a centuries-old golden trophy, we can't just do what we want with it-"

"Without knowing the consequences, I know! You've been yelling it at me for an hour." Sam snapped, seriously frustrated by the girl's decision. "All I'm saying is, we could just try it and-"

"We're not trying it. End of story." Nora said sharply. "I need to use the bathroom." She went to the said bathroom of her hotel room, before heading back, staring at her wrists, then at the two men, with an embarrassed gaze. "I can't go with these on."

The remark made Sam scoff and raise an eyebrow at her, amused by Nora's sudden vulnerability. "Oh, is that so?"

"Goddamnit, just take 'em off me, alright?"

"Only if you agree to put water in it."

His arms were now crossed on his chest, and he had an overly confident look on his face. He knew she was going to say yes. She had to.

"Oh my god, you never quit, do you? It's not happening. Now please take the keys and open the freaking cuffs."

She was growing irritated now. If he thought she was going to say yes without a fight, he was dead wrong. She stole the trophy, so she was the one to decide what to do with it.

Sully nodded towards Sam, who grabbed the keys and unlocked the cuffs. A fake smile appeared on his face as Nora took the cuffs off with relief. Her wrists were marked with a red and blue-ish line which ran all around them.

"Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me."

She turned around quickly and locked herself in the bathroom. When she came back out, her eyes widened at the sight of Sam, a water bottle in his hand. Sully was just leaning against a wall, looking at Sam disapprovingly.

"Oh no, you didn't." She exclaimed, almost running to the man.

She pushed him and looked inside the trophy. There was water in it. She turned around to face the man, and god she wanted to slap him.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I tried to talk him out of it, but he's stubborn as hell."

Sam looked a little scared by the girl now. He swore if looks could kill, he would've died four times already.

"I know you're mad but I swear it'll work."

"Mad? I'm fucking furious right now. You could've, at least, waited for me. You could've tried to convince me – again – but using better arguments than just 'let's do it and see what happens'." She said, mimicking the man's tone and waving her arms around.

"I tried to explain my reasoning but each time you cut me off! I can't explain shit to someone who shuts me up before I even open my mouth!" He snapped.

Nora was about to answer but was cut off by a loud click coming from the trophy. Sam and she looked at each other, wide-eyed, and turned to face the artifact. The line Nora noticed in the museum was now a small gap, growing bigger with every small click until it stopped widening. Nora looked at Sam, suddenly feeling guilty and stupid for everything she said to him. He was just grinning, proud and excited, and reached out to fully part the two halves of the trophy. The top half consisted of the cup, which looked like a proper chalice now, and the bottom part was just the long pedestal.

Sam took the bottom in his hands carefully and peeked inside. There was a parchment. He slowly let it slide from the hollow object onto the desk, putting said object down right after. His heart was racing in his chest and his breathing became faster out of excitement. He exhaled sharply while rolling the parchment on the table, his eyes looking over it quickly.

"It's a map." He said with a grin on his lips before flipping the paper around to check if there was anything else. "And a letter. I mean, it looks like a letter. Some of it is English and some of it is...old Spanish, I guess? I don't understand it, though."

Nora leaned over the paper to inspect it closely. "Not that damn language again…" She muttered, remembering all the sleepless nights she had trying to translate it.

"You know it?"

"Yeah, it was all over Anne's letters to Mary Read and Rackham. It's a pain in the neck to translate, and that's coming from someone whose second language is Spanish."

Nora sighed heavily before flipping the parchment back to the map. She inspected it with a magnifying glass before handing it to Sam so he could do the same. The place depicted on the map looked like some kind of island, and there were only three places – cities? – marked, with a sentence in the same old Spanish Nora hated so much under the map.

"Tell me if you find where it is, cause I sure as hell have no idea."

She fell back into a chair behind her and looked at her wrists, still hurting. Sam inspected the map again and sighed.

"I can't believe it…" He whispered before turning to Sully. "Look at the names."

"Saint Dismas' Harbour, Treasury District, New Devon…" Sully seemed to be thinking about it for a little while before realizing. "Goddamnit."

"It's Libertalia."

"Libertalia? The legendary pirate utopia that never existed?" Nora asked, visibly not buying it.

"It did come true. Victor, I can't believe you didn't tell her about it."

"I never had the occasion to." He shrugged.

"Wait, tell me about what?"

"About Avery's treasure being in Libertalia. We actually went there."

"Wait, wait, wait. You told me about the entire adventure, how you went to Scotland and Madagascar, but, somehow, you forgot to mention the 'small island off the coast' was Liber-fucking-talia."

"I didn't think it mattered."

"Your niece is a goddamn pirate nerd, but you didn't think mentioning that the place where you found one of the greatest pirate treasures of all time was Libertalia mattered? Sure, makes sense." Nora said sarcastically.

"Well you know now, don't you? And we'll even get to visit the place together. So stop complaining."

"We?" Nora frowned. She did not plan for them to stick around.

"Well, yeah. The three of us."

"Oh no. If I'm finding this, it's alone. Sorry but I really-"

"Alone? Are you out of your goddamn mind, kid? I know you, you're gonna fall off a cliff or a ledge and get yourself killed."

"I think I've been doing this long enough to pull something off on my own, tio."

"Don't you even argue with me on that one, Nora. It's ridiculous, we're looking for the same thing, we might as well do it together. And your mother will never forgive me if anything happens to you and I wasn't around."

Nora thought about it for a minute. He was right. Going after it alone was a terrible idea. Even if she has been doing this kind of jobs for years, she was still clumsy as hell. She sighed heavily before giving up her idea.

"When're we leaving?" She asked, a resigned tone in her voice.

"Uh, tomorrow morning? Is that alright?"

"Yeah, sounds good to me."

"Same here." Sam nodded and grabbed his shirt which sat on a chair.

"Great. Sam'll come and pick you up around 8PM."

"See you tomorrow, then."

Sam just smiled at her before heading out, while Sully took his niece in his arms again.

"I'm glad you're back in business, kid. It wasn't the same without you."

Nora left a quick kiss on her uncle's cheek before he left. She started to pack her bags, being extra careful with the trophy and the map, and began to work on the letter to translate it. It was going to be another long night.


	4. Sights

The morning after, Nora was woken up by a loud knock on her door. She immediately sat up and glanced over at the alarm clock. 8:05. She quickly gathered her things, put on a simple white tee and a pair of jeans before proceeding to open the door. She was met with a fist right in front of her face, as Sam was about to knock again.

"Finally. Hi. Victor's waiting in the plane, we gotta go." Sam told her quickly before turning around and heading towards a cab parked in front of the motel.

Nora nodded in return and followed him silently. She was feeling extremely guilty about the way she had treated him the night previous, and was too ashamed to say anything. The entire cab ride was silent, with Sam looking out the window and Nora staring at her shoes the whole time. Thank god it wasn't a long way to the plane. Once they got there, Víctor greeted his niece with a hug and helped her put her bags in the plane. Sam took some time to smoke a cigarette and at around 8:25, they took off for Madagascar. Nora was seating across from Sam and was listening to the plan. They were going to stay in a hotel in King's Bay and work on the letter and the map until they figured out where to go exactly on Libertalia. Nora was okay with it and nodded, still trying to find the right words to apologize to Sam.

"So, Nora." She looked at Sam, a little surprised that he decided to talk first. "How'd you find out about the trophy?"

"Oh. Um...There was this letter where Bonny said she hid something in Panama for Mary." She shrugged. "I remembered that story about how Bonny stole this trophy from a ship and left it in the fort in Isla Blanca. I headed there, found it in the museum and decided to steal it."

"Hm. Smart." He muttered under his breath.

"I guess so. What about you? What led you to the trophy?"

"We met with some guy who said he had info on how to get to the treasure and listened to him. He said there was a rumor about something being hidden in the trophy, but historians never found anything. So I went with the plan of posing as a guard and tried to steal it. As you can see, it didn't quite work out according to plan. Mainly because of you and, y'know, your magical knee." He finished with a smirk, and his eyes were locked with Nora's.

"You're still bitter over that, aren't you?" She chuckled.

"Well, yes. It hurt."

"I'm sorry, okay? If I knew you were working with Sully, I wouldn't have done it." She said amused before returning to a more serious tone. "But for real...I'm sorry. About that, about how I treated you yesterday...I just have-"

"It's alright. Victor told me about the trust issues."

"Before you ask, it's all I said, darling. That you've had bad experiences that caused you to have trust issues." Sully said just before his niece could open her mouth.

She didn't particularly like the idea that her uncle ran around telling her life story to strangers and was glad he didn't explain anything more. She gave him a slight smile as a thank you and looked back at Sam.

"I know I can come off as stone-cold and mean sometimes but I want you to know, since we're working together and all, that's not who I really am. So, yeah. Sorry." This sincere apology earned her a smile from Sam, who held out his hand. She looked at it confusingly.

"Nice to meet you, Nora."

She relaxed and shook his hand, smirking. "Same to you, Sam."

The rest of the flight was along the same notes. When they weren't talking about their adventures, Pirates or history, they revealed bits of information about themselves, slowly getting to know each other. Sully sometimes chimed in the conversation, letting Nora or Sam become the pilot from time to time to have some rest. After 14 hours, they finally arrived to destination and immediately checked in their hotel. Sam and Victor would share a room and Nora would be alone in hers. The trio didn't even bother saying goodnight and headed straight to their rooms, exhausted and eager to head to Libertalia as soon as possible.

After a good night's sleep, Nora, Víctor and Sam met in the morning at a small restaurant across the street to have some breakfast. Víctor and Sam ordered coffee and pancakes, while Nora asked for waffles, a hot cocoa, some orange juice and three different malagasy pastries. All of this in an almost perfect french. Needless to say, that left the two men speechless. They were looking at her, wide eyed.

"What? I'm hungry." She said simply, before taking the letter/map out of her bag and setting it on the table along with a notebook that contained a few notes about it all. "Tell me when you're done staring at me like I'm some kind of alien or something, so maybe we can get to work."

At those words, the two men regained their composure and leaned forward on the table to have a good look at everything. Sam quickly noticed the few translated words inside the notebook, as well as the insane amount of scribbles everywhere. He managed to read some of the words that had scribbles over them and some of them stood out. 'idiot'. 'think harder'. 'be better'. 'you're never gonna find anything'. 'andrew was right'. Now he didn't know if those words were directed towards him, or someone he didn't know, or even Nora herself, but he found himself troubled about it, somehow. He decided not to mention anything for now and focused on what was completely readable.

"So. I managed to translate like, four words so far. I thought that the parts in English would be helpful to understand the rest but, turns out it's useless." Nora explained, her eyes flickering between her notes and the letter.

"Useless?" Víctor asked, a cigar in his right hand and a lighter in the other.

"Yeah. It's just small talk, to distract potential readers I think."

"So they don't try to look further into it." Sam added.

"Exactly. The first few sentences are about the weather in Port Royal."

"So people would think there's nothing to it. She was smart."

"Indeed. Now the few words I translated are completely unrelated and are in different sentences so...we got a lot of work to do."

"Wait, before we get to that part, can you tell me what's so special about that treasure again? Sam dragged me into this without saying anything so I'm kinda lost here." Víctor said as he took a drag off his cigar.

Nora was about to explain it all when two waiters arrived to give them their food. The two men got their coffee and pancakes, while Nora was served four plates, a glass of oj and a cup of hot cocoa. Sam and Sully still didn't believe the amount of food she ordered, and were sure she'd never finish it. Nora thanked the waiters in french again and quickly focused back on the treasure. Seeing the way the men were eyeing her, she rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

"I haven't eaten anything ever since I left that goddamn museum, I'm starving. Give me a damn break."

Noticing her annoyed tone, the men nodded, took a sip of their coffee and started eating their pancakes as Nora explained the treasure's story to her uncle.

"Read and Bonny kept a secret chest where they had all their most precious belongings, money & stuff they stole or found. One day their, uh...associate, Captain John Rackham, found out about the chest and promised not to say anything in exchange for a part of the treasure. The women agreed, but planned on giving him a cut after they get their hands on something big. At least that was their excuse, they never really intended to give him anything. Now, after Bonny, Read and Rackham are declared wanted by the British, our dear Anne had the idea of seducing the captain of the Royal Queen, a ship that was sent to take them. She gets on the ship, drugs said captain, Hudson, sabotages the cannons and steals a bunch of royal jewels that were offered to Hudson. After the fight, which is won by our pirates, Read takes another part of those jewels before killing Captain Hudson out of jealousy.

Unfortunately they are arrested a few days after, the treasure is taken by the governor and stored somewhere in his quarters. History says we don't know what happened to Bonny and her treasure after that, except that we do. Someone, most likely her father, bribed the governor of Jamaica who just let her walk out, free as a bird. What he didn't plan was for her to go and steal her treasure back before completely disappearing. Now, we also know that she actually reached out to Avery and co-founded Libertalia with the idea of putting her treasure there, leaving clues for Read to find it when or if she gets out of prison as she doesn't know she died there."

Víctor nodded the whole time, taking drags off his cigar here and there, but mostly focusing on the complicated yet interesting story. Sam, on the other hand, was completely absorbed by Nora's words. His gaze never left her face, and he paid attention to every word she used even though he already knew the story. There was something about the way she told it. Her eyes had a slight glow in them, she was moving her hands around as she talked, she never hesitated on a fact, and her lips were formed in a light smile. Sam could tell this story was particular to her, and that she was genuinely passionate about the two female pirates. He found that extremely attractive and endearing, somehow. It wasn't every day he met a beautiful and smart young woman who had a knack for history and pirates. So when he did, it stood out.

Nora only noticed Sam's gaze when she was done telling the story. She started eating one of the pastries and waited for his eyes to settle somewhere else before looking at him. She took some time to observe his features, paying extra attention to his eyes, his mouth, his tattoo, his toned chest that she could make out behind his dark blue v-neck…she hadn't noticed before, but Sam was handsome. And not that much of an arrogant asshole, in the end. She smiled to herself as she remembered what she thought of him two nights before. Turns out, she was wrong. She was actually glad to have met him now, and knew he was going to become a good friend when they had their conversation about their families and lives in the plane. She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard her name coming out of her uncle's mouth, and immediately lifted her head to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"Where were you? I've been calling your name for some time now." Sully said, trying his best to hide the fact that he was worried.

"Sorry. I was just...daydreamin'. I'm here now." Nora said calmly, a smile on her face to reassure her uncle.

Usually, her absences were not a good sign. It meant she was either about to have an anxiety or panic attack, or that she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. So whenever she was drifting away or just staring straight into nothing, Sully thought something was wrong and that he'd have to take her in his arms to calm her down. He felt relief wash over him when she came back, and smiled back at her.

"Sam thinks he translated some more words. Just wanted to see if he was right." He explained while putting out his cigar in the ashtray that was on the table.

"Oh really?" Nora's attention went back to Sam, who had a proud grin on his face. "Go ahead, tell me."

"Sure. So, this sentence right here," He pointed at one of the first sentences in old spanish and tapped on it. "I think it means something like 'I left to seek God and Liberty, here's how to join me'. I ain't no expert so this is all speculation, but some of the words seem familiar."

Nora took the letter in her hand and read the sentence Sam pointed at over and over. She repeated the sentence in both its original language and translated, then looked back up at Sam.

"I think you're right." She chuckled. "You're a natural. I spent the night on this thing and only managed to translate four words. You look at one sentence and manage to translate it in a minute."

"Well, I guess some things come easier to certain people." He joked.

"Right." Nora said timidly before stuffing her mouth with another pastry.

Even though Sam was just joking, and the sentence itself wasn't that important, she couldn't help but feel like shit. She should've found this out earlier. She should've stayed up later. She should've taken more time to think about this, to go over the sentences until her eyes were dry. No matter how hard she tried, there was always someone to do better than her. Someone smarter, prettier, funnier, nicer, more interesting. She tried to hide the insane amount of self-loathing she was feeling at the moment by eating compulsively, not taking enough time to actually appreciate her food. It wasn't like she cared anymore anyways.

"Woah, we get it you're hungry but slow down, goddamnit. You still gotta breathe, kid." Sully chuckled when he saw how his niece was eating.

 _Do I have to though?_ Nora thought, seriously not wanting to do anything but crawl inside a dark hole somewhere and stay there forever. But she just smiled and wiped her mouth with a paper towel.

"Sorry. It's just so good." She laughed before clearing her throat and standing up. "I'm going to the bathroom. Just...keep working on that thing."

 _And please don't find anything._ She thought as she turned around and headed to the bathroom. Once there, she lock herself in one of the stalls and dug inside her pocket to find her pills. She sighed and swallowed one, taking deep breaths in and out too calm herself down. Even though her depression was slowly going away and she was getting better, she had these "episodes" sometimes, where she'd just hate herself more than usual. Usually, a pill and a few deep breaths would make it go away. At least that's what she kept telling herself.

When she sat back down at the table, looking like nothing ever happened, she quickly noticed that her notebook was in Sam's hands, along with the letter. He kept scribbling things on the paper every now and then and Nora understood. He found more words. Part of her was extremely happy that he managed to translate it that fast, but another felt useless as ever. She forced herself to repress the thoughts and went back to eating normally, focusing on her food rather than her dark thoughts. The trio stayed like that for a while, sitting around the table in silence, Sam writing while Sully and Nora were eating. Time had passed since they first entered the restaurant, now the sun was higher in the cloudless blue sky, and the temperature had raised a few degrees. It was a nice day in King's Bay. Nora was starting to enjoy the calm of the place, when it was disturbed by a triumphant Sam who put the notebook back down on the table with a loud noise.

"I got the important words! We can head to Libertalia now." He said with a grin.

"Wait, wait. We need to be sure you're right before going anywhere. I'm not staying on this damn island more time than I have to." Sully replied with a groan.

"Oh, come on, what happened to trusting me, huh?" Sam said ironically.

"Right." Sully just scoffed, finishing his coffee while shaking his head.

"He's right though. Mind if I check it out before we do anything?"

"Sure, go ahead." He gave her the book and leaned back in his chair. "I mean, it's not like you were able to figure it out before so…" He tried to joke, only to be met with a deadly glare from Nora, who was clearly not amused. "Sorry. That was...not funny." He looked at her with a sincere sorry look in his eyes, sensing she'd been kinda hurt by the comment.

She just stared back down at Sam's notes and guesses, only to find out most of the sentences he translated were right, and essential. She sighed heavily and threw the notebook back down on the table, looking at the two men. "Sam found where we need to go. I'll let him explain, I need a smoke." She said lazily, leaving money on the table for her food and a tip for the waitress. She stood up and took her bag before heading out of the place. The street was busier than it had been in the morning but she didn't mind. She pulled out a cigarette, lit it and started to smoke, looking around. Her eyes fell on a man who clearly wasn't from Madagascar and who was staring at her intently. She frowned, knowing just too well what it meant: someone was following them. She put out her cigarette before finishing and put it back in the back before going back inside the restaurant. Sam and Sully were about to leave but she made a movement with her head to make them understand they couldn't go outside. The men looked at her without really knowing what was going on while she went to ask for a back exit.

"What's going on here?" Sam whispered to Sully, who shrugged.

"I have no idea. But I don't like it."

The woman turned back to them and motioned to follow her to the back exit. Once they were out, Nora inspected the alley to make sure they were alone.

"Jesus Nora will you tell us what the hell is happening?" Sully snapped, annoyed by the mysterious attitude of his niece.

"We're being followed. I saw a man on the street. In his 30s, wearing black clothes, staring at me. I don't know who he was but I've been in this business long enough to understand what it means." She said quietly and calmly.

"How long is 'long enough', exactly?" Sam inquired, slightly curious. Nora was still fairly young, so she couldn't have done this for more than 6 years.

"12 years. But that's not the point here so stay focused." Sam didn't reply to this, not wanting to make his case worse with her.

"What's the plan, kid?" Sully asked.

"We try to get to higher grounds and see if there are more people than just this guy. Or we find a way to head back to the hotel unnoticed, we grab our supplies and we go to Libertalia right now. Unnoticed, of course." She explained, leaving the choice to her partners. She already had an idea of their answer, though.

"Libertalia." They said in sync.

"Alright. So what we're gonna do is walk in the street, in front of the hotel, like we really don't stay there, check if the man's still here and if he is, find a way to sneak in."

"Sounds good to me." Sam agreed.

The trio put their plan into action and started to walk in the street looking careless, while looking around them to spot any suspect behavior. Fortunately for them, no one was around, so they just went in their rooms, grabbed everything they needed and loaded it all inside the plane before taking off for Libertalia.

But what Nora didn't tell her allies was that she found a note on her bed when she was packing her backpack. The note read: 'I see you haven't given up. Good for me. Maybe I'll be able to get my revenge on you. May the best (me) win the race. Yours truly, A'


	5. Swim

It wasn't a very long flight to Libertalia. 20 minutes, 25 minutes tops. During the flight, Sam had noticed the way Nora was fiddling with her fingers, moving the heel of her foot up and down like she was nervous or preoccupied with something. The first thing that crossed his mind was this question: _is she like that because of my stupid joke?_ Seeing how she took it back at the restaurant made him feel extremely guilty. He had to learn how to shut up and stop being witty when in certain situations. But no, he decided to be a goofball and made a stupid, insensitive joke about how she hadn't been able to translate the letter. And now she was playing with her fingers and moving her foot fast and he didn't know what to do. He took his courage in his own two hands and cleared his throat, making her look up at him.

"I'm really sorry if my, uh...my 'joke' hurt you or anything. Wasn't the point. I mean, I shouldn't even have said that in the first place, even as a joke, it was insensitive and-" He was cut off by Nora, who raised a hand as to stop him and smiled lightly.

"Oh, how the tables have turned." She laughed, and Sam felt instantly relaxed, as if the sound of her laugh had a magical effect on his brain. "It's fine. It made me feel weird on the spot but it's fine. Don't sweat it." She smiled fondly and went back to her fiddling.

Sam looked at her, both with relief and confusion. The good thing was, she wasn't mad at him. She laughed, joked, and smiled. So she wasn't mad. But the bad thing was that she was still acting sorta nervous or preoccupied. Nothing had changed on this side. If it wasn't his joke that preoccupied her, what was it? _Oh, we're being followed_ , Sam remembered, _that could explain the nervousness_. But he couldn't help but think there was something more to it. Did she know who was after them? _No_ , he thought. _If she did, she would have told us._ He was put out of his thoughts by Sully's voice, telling both of the passengers that they'd arrive to Libertalia soon.

Nora stood up carefully and started to gather their equipment. They took two sleeping bags, as they probably wouldn't get to the place they were indicated before nighttime, some water and food, two grappling hooks and other basic supplies. She handed the biggest backpack to Sam and took the smaller one before sitting back on her seat.

"So, let's go over the plan together one last time, okay?" She started. Sam nodded and Sully just gave her a thumb up. "We get to the island, Sam and I start heading towards New Devon while Victor stays here so we have a quick way out just in case things go to shit. We set camp when night starts to fall, eat and rest and resume our walk to Anne's manor in the morning. We find what we need and hopefully we're out of here in the afternoon in one piece." Nora explained slowly, her eyes closed.

Sam watched her intently, still wondering what could be bothering her. Nora, on the other hand, had something else on her mind. He had found her. He was probably going to follow them here. They had to be quick so they could get off the island without running into him. She tried her best to hide the fact that her mind was racing and that she couldn't stop worrying about Andrew. But it was hard as Sam kept looking at her like he knew what she was thinking about. She finally took it upon her to confront him about it, so she could be sure of what he was thinking.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked softly, her head tilted to the side. Sam raised his eyebrows, not expecting it, and shook his head.

"Oh. Um. You seemed nervous and I was just wondering why. That's it." He shrugged. "Sorry if that bothered you."

"I'm not nervous. I just...really can't wait to get to Libertalia." She smiled softly, lying perfectly to Sam who returned her smile.

"It's beautiful, you'll see. You're gonna love it."

"This isn't some kind of Libertalia tourist tour, guys! You find whatever it is we need and we get the hell out of there, just like we said. No useless wandering and all." Sully interrupted as he overheard their conversation, which made Sam and Nora laugh.

Soon enough, Sully landed the plane on the water, nearby the main harbour of the island. Sam and Nora took their bags, said goodbye to Sully and left.

While they were making their way through the worn down buildings and burnt down Shoreline vehicles, Sam was explaining what went down there exactly a year before.

The beginning of the hike towards New Devon was longer than expected, as the fire exchanges that took place a year earlier destroyed some passages and bridges Sam and Nora needed to cross. They found themselves forced to take a longer and more complicated route, much to Nora's despair.

"Do I really have to do this?" She said as she faced a cliff, her grappling hook attached to a tree on the opposite cliff.

"Just don't think about it too much. I'll be right there to catch you." Sam tried to reassure her, but he could see that it didn't really work.

Nora took a deep breath and jumped reluctantly, muttering a prayer over and over. Once she finally reached the other cliff, she felt Sam's arms wrapped protectively around her to make her feel safe. And it worked. She lifted her head to look at him and smiled, looking behind her as well.

"I'll never get used to doing this. It really freaks me out, but when I'm done I feel so proud of myself...I did it." She let out a laugh of relief and felt Sam back away from the edge with her still in his arms.

She turned her head to see a smiling Sam, who slowly let go of her, adjusting his own grappling hook on his belt. She did the same with her own and brushed past him to take the lead.

"I really hope we won't have to do that again." She laughed, followed by Sam who was walking right behind her.

"Next time we'll just jump together. Maybe it'll make you feel safer or something."

"Yeah. Why not." They smiled at each other before resuming their walk.

A few hours later, they finally made it to the commercial district. The sun was just starting to set, giving a light orange glow to the ruins. From the cliff they were on, slightly above the town, the view looked absolutely wonderful. Sam looked at it with a content smile on his face and Nora was just amazed by it. Never in her life she had thought she'd be standing in front of the remains of a legendary pirate utopia. She couldn't help the grin that slowly appeared on her face, and kept staring at the city, a slight spark in her eyes.

"I told you it was beautiful." Sam said softly while walking up beside her. He turned his head to look at her face, and took some time to go over each one of her features. The sunset light falling on her face made her skin look even more beautiful than it already was and grazed each curve of her face wonderfully. Sam felt overwhelmed by the sight of her and he couldn't help but stare. When she turned her head to look at him as well, she smirked a little and felt her cheeks go red.

"See something you like?" She said amused, tilting her head to the side. Sam blinked and tried to regain his composure as fast as he could.

"Um...yeah. It's a pretty nice view." He said, looking back at the city, hoping she didn't catch him staring too much.

"Sure is." The smirk was still planted on her face as she saw him blush as well. "Come on. We need to get moving. Find a place to spend the night." She patted his shoulder and took the lead, climbing down the cliff.

Nora couldn't help but look everywhere, in every building, as they walked through the commercial district. Her curiosity and her passion got the best of her, and the pair ended up spending over an hour in the town. Sam told her about Avery's laws, the riots, how Libertalia ended. He was like a guide, leading her in the treasury, the underground tunnels created by the rioters...When they finally left the place, it was already darker outside. Not entirely nighttime, but not daytime either.

They walked in the forest for another 15 minutes before finding a place to stay for the night. It was a cave next to a small lake. The cave wasn't very deep, it was really just a recess in the cliffside, but it was good enough for a night. Sam and Nora decided to prep everything before relaxing a little. They place their thin inflatable mats inside the recess, threw their sleeping bags over them along with their backpacks. They put out some food, mostly cereal bars and dried meat sticks, and ate silently, watching as the color of the sky shifted from orange to red to purple. After that, Sam went to get some wood for a fire and Nora took the walkie-talkie to update Sully. When she put it back in Sam's bag, she noticed the pack of cigarettes he had taken and took one, grabbing his lighter along. She sat by the lake and started smoking, when she felt someone sitting on the rock next to her. She looked at Sam, who also had a cigarette between his lips.

"Hi." He simply said. "Got some wood for the fire tonight. I see you found my cigarette stash." He pointed at the stick between her fingers.

"Hey. I'm sorry I just...I saw your cigarettes and I thought I'd just take one. Sorry I didn't ask."

"It's okay. I mean, I would've prefered if you asked but it's fine."

"I was having some major withdrawal...I hope you're not mad or anything."

"Don't worry about it. It's alright." He gave her a kind smile which she returned and went back to looking at the water in front of them. "So. Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Today was fun so…"

"It was, yeah."

"Actually, I was surprised that we were alone the entire time."

"You were?" Sam turned back to her, an eyebrow raised as he didn't expect her to say something like that.

"Yeah, I...I just thought that maybe we'd get some company along the way." She shrugged, taking one last drag off her cigarette before shoving the butt in her pocket. "It's good we didn't though."

"You talking about the people who were following us back in King's Bay, huh?"

"Yup."

"Do you know who that was, by the way?"

"Um...okay, don't get mad." She pulled out the note she had found in her hotel room from her back pocket and handed it to Sam, who took it, a little bit confused. "I found this back at the hotel. It was on my bed. It was just before we took off." Sam unfolded the paper and started reading, his brows furrowing more with each word that encountered his eyes.

"Okay, who is this? What's his problem? And why didn't you say anything?" Nora took a deep breath and looked right back at Sam.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want Sully to worry about it too much. He knows this person and, well, so do I. And if I showed him that, he would've forced me to go back home and give up the treasure. And obviously, that wasn't going to happen."

"So, who's that A?"

"Uh...that's Andrew. He's my ex-partner/boyfriend. We were looking for this treasure together a few years back. And, uh...let's just say that working and falling in love with a violent, treasure-obsessed cocain addict isn't a really smart idea. And when I broke things off, he wasn't exactly very happy. I've spent the last year hiding from him. I moved from New York to San Francisco, took an alias…"

"And he followed you here?"

"No. He never found me after I left. I guess he followed Víctor, hoping we'd cross path again since we're related and we work together sometimes, and that led him to Panama, where he finally found me again. That's also why I didn't say anything. I didn't want him to feel guilty or anything. None of this is his fault."

"You said he was violent."

"Yeah, I said that."

"Was he...violent towards...you? Did he do that to you?" He pointed at the few cuts and marks on her arms, as well as the bullet wound on her left shoulder, right next to her rose tattoo. She pulled back a little.

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Okay. Just...know that if you do, I'll be right here."

"I'll remember that, thank you." She said, a single silent tear running down her right cheek.

They both stayed like that for a little while, just sitting next to each other, talking about nothing, just watching the night slowly fall all around them. Suddenly, Nora got up and looked at the lake intently.

"Wanna go for a swim?" She asked Sam, smiling cheekily while looking at him.

"You mean...now?"

"Well, yes."

"But-"

"You wanna go or not?" She repeated, laughing a little.

"I mean…"

"You know what? Do whatever you like. I'll just get in." She shrugged and started to undress, taking off her plain grey tee, her jeans, her shoes and her socks. She was now in her underwear, tying her hair up in a lazy bun as Sam couldn't help but watch her. He noticed her many tattoos, mainly sentences, words and little drawings here and there, her multiple scars, a few cigarette burns and most importantly, her three gunshot wounds. One on her left shoulder, one on her lower left side and another on her right thigh. He furrowed his brows at this sight before going back to his initial staring. His eyes went over her figure a few times, taking in her curves.

"It's impolite to stare." She chuckled, pulling him out of his gazing.

"Huh? Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"It's alright Sam. I don't mind." She winked before going in the water slowly, letting out little sounds of satisfaction and relief the deeper she went. She started swimming around, turning back and motioning for Sam to join her. "Come in! I swear it's the best feeling in the world. I mean, after all this walking in the heat, under that sun...it feels amazing."

"Alright then…" He stood up slowly and started to undress, putting his clothes next to Nora's before diving in, making her laugh. "What are you laughing at?"

"You."

"Okay...I don't really know if it's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Good thing is you made me laugh, bad thing is that you made me laugh because your dive was lame."

"Well, I can't ever win, can I?" He laughed with her, swimming closer to where she was.

"Nah." Nora started swimming around, looking alternatively at Sam and at the night sky. "'Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.'" She recited while looking at the cloudless sky.

"Who said that?" Sam asked softly, getting closer to her.

"Margaret Atwood. In The Penelopiad." She answered simply.

"Well, wow. It's a beautiful quote."

"It is indeed. One of my favorites, actually."

"I can see why."

"Maybe someday you'll hear the rest of my favorites." She smiled.

"If they're all as beautiful as this one, I can't wait to hear you say them." He was right in front of her now, his face only a few inches away from hers, his eyes locked with her brown ones.

"We should probably get out now and make a fire. We'll catch a cold." She stated simply, still looking at Sam's eyes.

"You're right."

They both reluctantly backed away and put their clothes back on, before Sam proceeded to make a fire while Nora studied their maps and documents.

After warming up a little and going over their plan one last time, the pair went to bed on their super thin mattresses on the floor of the cave, tucked in their sleeping bags and ready for another day together on the island.


	6. Plans

Nora woke up feeling excited for the day to come. She sat up and looked around her, her brows furrowing when she noticed that Sam wasn't here, along with his things. She got up quickly, cracked her aching back and packed her own stuff, before looking around the area for Sam.

Fifteen minutes later, he was still nowhere to be found. Nora sat by the pond, on the same rock as the night previous and sighed heavily. She really started to think he had left her here to die.

"Son of a bitch." She muttered under her breath.

She was alone in the middle of the jungle, with only a sleeping bag, two cereal bars and a gourd. And without a walkie talkie as he took the only one they had. She was about to start walking towards their goal when she heard a noise behind her. Thinking it was Sam, she turned around quickly and found herself face to face with the same guy that had been watching her across from the restaurant in King's Bay. She looked him over quickly, trying to analyse the situation as quickly as she could. First thing she noticed is that he didn't have a gun, but he had a large knife strapped to his belt. He was staring at her with a rather menacing gaze and his hand traveled to the knife on his side. Nora's first instinct was to clench her fists and get ready to fight in case he decided to attack her first.

"Listen pal, I don't know how much Andrew is paying you to follow me around like that, but I assure you that I can pay you way more just to leave me alone. What do you say, big guy?" She tried, hoping that he would say yes but not really believing he would.

"I say that sounds appealing...I also say that your bank accounts are almost empty, and that you couldn't pay me more that him even if you tried your best. Now I have orders to follow, so let's cut right to the point."

That's when the guy took out his knife and attacked Nora, who managed to avoid a severe cut on the face, the blade hitting her right shoulder instead. When he went back towards her, she quickly pulled out a knife from the side pocket of her backpack and managed to lightly wound her attacker on the cheek. Unfortunately for her, the pain and humiliation of being hurt by a woman smaller and weaker than him only made the henchman more aggressive. This time, she couldn't do anything when he punched her in the face, making her fall to the ground. Just as she was about to get back on her feet, she felt a kick in her stomach and collapsed back down on the ground, twisting in pain. The mercenary then crouched over her, turning her body so she was facing him. He straddled her and put his knife on her throat, applying just enough pressure to leave a small, non-fatal cut.

"You're lucky Burgess doesn't want me to hurt you too badly, you fucking bitch, otherwise you'd be begging for me to end your suffering right fucking now."

He readied his fist and was about to knock her out when a bang resounded and he collapsed right on Nora's petrified and painful body. Some of his blood was on her face and she was panting, still trying to process what just happened. She felt the weight of his body slowly getting off her, and the sight of a dead body was replaced by Sam's worried look. Seeing how distraught she was, he sat her up and took her in his arms, holding her close to his body so she felt safe and protected. She stayed in his arms for a little while before pushing him away and standing up, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, face, throat and stomach.

"Where the fuck were you?" She yelled, her eyes red and filled with tears she was doing her best to hold back.

"I'm so sorry, listen I can explain-"

"You left me here alone, you asshole! You scared the living shit out of me! I thought you left me here to die, that you went looking for her mansion alone! Do you have any idea of all the stuff I imagined? I pictured you telling Sully I was dead or something.."

"I know, let me explain everything, okay? I'll tell you everything, you just have to calm down and breathe. You're still in state of shock, after all you've been through a lot this morning and I don't want you passing out on me, sweetheart." He tried to temper her, talking slowly and soothingly to calm her down.

"You don't get to tell me to calm down! You have no idea what I just went through."

"Waking up alone, not knowing where your friends and partners are and then being face to face with someone who's doing their best to hurt you without killing you? Trust me, I know the feeling, sweetheart. Now, just sit, breathe and let me do the talking alright?" Sam's words seemed to have a calming effect on her, as she sat back down on a rock, a hand on her bleeding shoulder and another one on her throat. "Let me take care of this for you first, okay?"

Nora nodded and let Sam take a look at her injuries. He put down his backpack and started digging inside it, looking for the first-aid kit. He then proceeded to sanitize the cuts on her shoulder and throat and to bandage them, before taking a closer look where the man had hit her. Her left cheek was red and swollen but she was fine.

"Can you...would you mind lifting your shirt so I can check your stomach?" Sam asked softly while Nora just did it, still in shock from what happened.

"Can I have the walkie talkie?" She asked blankly, staring at the dead body next to them.

Sam handed her the talkie, giving her a slightly concerned look, before gently patting her stomach with the palm of his hand, checking to see if she had any broken ribs. Nora fiddled with the talkie until she found the right frequency to reach Sully.

"Come in, tio."

"Kid! You alright?"

"I'm good, except for the fact that I just got attacked by one of An- by a mercenary."

"Shit, you okay?"

"I got a few cuts and broken ribs but I'm fine. Just a few more for the collection, right?" She joked, earning a light chuckle from her uncle. "I just wanted to tell you that...I love you and all that stuff."

"I don't really like the sound of that, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes. Just wanted you to know it." She sniffed, smiling slightly while Sam was securing her ribs with a bandage. "We gotta go, I'll talk to you later."

"Alright, stay safe. Love you too, Nora."

She handed the talkie to Sam, who put it back in his backpack before standing up and helping Nora do the same. They resumed their walk to New Devon, and Sam took the opportunity to explain why he left in the morning. He told the brown-skinned girl about how he got an emergency call from Sully on the talkie about a few boats arriving to the island while they were asleep, how he decided to make sure there was no one around so they could keep going safely and how he came back and saved her. Nora tried her best to stay focused on his words and not on the bloody bandages wrapped around her wounds that were getting redder and redder by the minute. When Sam noticed after a few minutes and offered to stop so he could fix the bandages, Nora refused and kept walking, determined to find whatever Anne hid in her manor.

It didn't take the pair too long to reach New Devon, but the hardest part was yet to come as they had to swim through two other mansions before they could reach their final destination. Sam decided to go first, leading the way so that Nora could get there as easily as she could, given her ribs were still giving her a hard time. Once they were in, her eyes couldn't help but widen at the sight of the worn-down luxury house. Time and water had not been kind to the building, which was partially destroyed, with weeds and foam all over the floor and walls. It almost felt like they were in another world.

"Wow. This is surreal." Nora muttered faintly, her voice weak as she felt exhausted by the effort to get over to the manor.

"We should probably get going, start searching the place for...something, anything that might help." Sam said confidently, looking around in awe.

"Go ahead, I'm gonna take a break from moving around." Sam looked at her with concern and patted her back gently.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just...I'm just tired, that's it." She smiled shyly and sat down on the floor, her back against the wall.

"You stay here for a while, catch your breath and join me when you feel better, okay?" Nora nodded and drank a little bit of water. "Take that. I hope you won't need it but...we never know." He handed her his gun before heading towards another room.

Nora let her eyes wander around the room. It looked like some kind of living room, with worn-down fancy sofas around the room, half eaten by worms, covered by various plants and damaged by the water and the foam, equally destroyed coffee tables and chairs and some other pieces of furniture and decoration. She thought about how life must've been here for Anne before everything went down. After a few minutes, she started to feel a little better and climbed back on her feet, heading towards the room where Sam was. She entered the room - some kind of small library - and saw him rummaging through drawers, shaking every object he could find and opening every single book. She cleared her throat and he turned around, startled by the sudden sound, which made Nora laugh weakly.

"It's just me." She smiled, walking up to him.

"Feeling better already?"

"Yeah. Have you found something?"

" No. Just a bunch of old, half broken stuff. Nothing seemingly interesting to us. » He sighed and let his arms fall to his side in defeat.

« Come on. We're not going to give up now. » She laughed lightly and took a step so she was right in front of him, faces only a few inches apart. « Let's go. Sully will kill us if we don't get back to the plane soon. »

She put a hand on his shoulder, caressing it shortly before brushing past him and get to another room. Sam stood there for a few seconds, thinking about the girl's gesture towards him. _What the hell is going on here ?_ He thought, wondering how he should be taking these signs of affection. Were they just friendly ? Or were they...more ? _I mean, I wouldn't mind it being more than friendship...no. She's Victor's niece. It's weird._ Shaking his head as if to make the thoughts go away, he then followed Nora into the nearby room, which seemed to be some kind of music room. There was a grand piano in the corner, right next to large broken windows that gave a breathtaking view of the rest of New Devon. At the opposite side was another piano, smaller and more damaged. And next to it was a collection of violins and cellos. Of course, none of the instruments were usable as time hadn't spared them. Sam turned his head and saw Nora, standing in the middle of the room, looking around in awe. The sight brought a small smile to his face, which was wiped away as soon as she rushed to the window, looking outside intently.

« What is it ? » Sam asked, rushing to her side.

« Mercs. Not a lot of them, maybe 15/20. Armed. » She stated simply, pointing at said mercenaries.

« Crap. Okay we need to find something quick and get the hell out of here before they spot us. » Sam turned away quickly, but stopped in his tracks when he noticed that she wasn't following him. She was still staring out the window, like she hadn't heard him. « Nora, we have to get going now ! »

She still didn't move. Her eyes were fixed on him. It seemed as he saw her as well, as he was staring back to where she was. She was startled by hands on her shoulders and turned around, only to be faced with Sam, a worried look on his face. He cupped both her cheeks and stared straight into her eyes.

« I won't let him go anywhere near you, okay ? » She nodded silently. « Let's go now. »

Sam let go of her face gently and grabbed her hand, leading her into what looked like Anne Bonny's office. There was that same fancy decor all over the room, and a huge oak desk stood in the middle of the room. Bookcases were lined up against the wall behind the desk and the wall on the right side of the desk was made up of large windows, giving the same view as the previous room. This time, Sam didn't waste any time admiring the place and went straight to searching every book, drawer and vase to find a map or a key – anything that would lead them to the treasure. On the other hand, Nora, still shaken by the sight of her ex-boyfriend, was moving around slowly, inspecting objects lined up on the shelves on the wall in front of the desk. She lifted the small statue of a pegasus – Bonny's sigil – and heard a click in the statue, like a mecanism activating. Inspecting the small object more closely, she noticed that the pegasus' head moved slightly to the side and forced on it a little to make it move a little more. There was another click, louder this time, and something fell out of the winged-horse's stomach. She picked it up and noticed it was a parchment.

« Sam ? » She called out and a few seconds later the man was next to her. « I found a parchment. »

« Map ? Another letter ? »

« I have no idea. »

« Well open it. » Sam said excitedly and she did as she was told.

« Letter. All in English this time. »

They both started reading the letter silently. It was adressed to Mary Read – again – as Anne was explaining that she didn't trust her fellow founders anymore after she saw what the treasure did to Avery. It also explained how she planned to move it to another place, away from Libertalia, so if anything went wrong she could just leave and wouldn't lose their treasure. So they could enjoy it together. Then the letter moved on to some mural that Anne was having painted in her mansion. The letter never mentioned _where_ the treasure was moved, or if it was ever moved at all.

« Goddamnit. » Nora muttered under her breath, which made Sam laugh. « I don't see anything funny about this, Sam. »

« It's not that. »

« Then why the hell are you laughing like that ? »

« You talk just like Victor. That's all. »

« Oh. Yeah. Well, y'know, everytime he came over he'd talk like that so...I guess he influenced me. »

« Were you always that close ? »

« Yup. Since I was a baby. But now is not the time. »

« Oh. Sure. » Sam cleared his throat. « So, that letter. Do you think she had the time to move it before hell broke loose here ? »

« I don't know. »

Nora sighed and looked around the room aimlessly, when her eyes fell on a painting that took most part of the left side wall. She walked closer to it. It was a map of the world, with some places marked with a cross. Isla Blanca, North Carolina, Libertalia, Port Royal, Devon, King's Bay, Tortuga, Nassau...

« Well, there's our map. » Sam said behind Nora, his hands on his hips. « Doesn't point out to anywhere in particular, just strategic places for pirates and some other places she used to visit often. She really made it hard to find that damn treasure. » He sighed.

Nora didn't say anything, she was thinking too hard to even hear what Sam was saying. Her eyes ran over the mural over and over again, inspecting every single detail scupulously to be sure she didn't miss anything. Sam took a step closer to the map, elaborating theories and thinking out loud. He sometimes stopped to look at Nora with concern as she was incredibly quiet. He said her name a few times to get her attention, but nothing worked so he eventually gave up and resumed his own thinking. The pair stayed like that for a few minutes before Nora suddenly stepped towards the map and put a finger on what seemed to be Cuba. Sam looked at her, then at the map and back at her, not understanding her reasoning. There was nothing particular there, no cross, nothing written – not even the name of the country or the capital.

"So...will you ever explain what's so special about this place or...?"

"Nothing." She answered simply, pulling out the letter she had found previously and reading it again.

"Then why do you act like you've found something?" He frowned, not really understandng where she was getting.

"Because I just did."

"Then tell me what it is! We don't have time for games right now, Nora." Sam snapped, getting frustrated with her silence and her vague answers. She sighed in response and grabbed his hand, pulling him closer to the map.

"Look closely. Every single country on this map has something written on it, either with big letters or smaller ones. Whether it be just the name of the country, the name of the capital, the name of the famous ports, a cross, the merchandise you can find there, _something_. Except..."

"Except from Cuba." Sam said, finally understanding what the girl had found.

"Yes. Now it could just be a coincidence, but it could also be where she hid her treasure. I'm thinking it's the second option. Otherwise why would she mention this mural in her note?"

"Nora, you're a genius."

Sam said before planting a kiss on her forehead without really thinking it through. Her eyes widened at his action but she didn't bother mentioning it, they'd have time for it later. She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the map, putting it back into her bag along with the letter. Afterwards, Sam and Nora proceeded to find a way out of the building and back to the plane. They exited New Devon pretty quickly and unnoticed as there was no sign of the mercenaries and started walking back to Victor. After an hour of walking in the lucious forest, they decided to take a moment to change the bandages on Nora's wounds and stopped by the edge of a cliff. There was a river running down below the cliff's edge and there were very few trees around them. Nora was sat on a dead tree trunk and Sam was kneeled in front of her, unwrapping the tight bandage that was around her ribs. He was doing his best not to hurt her and mentally scolded himself everytime she winced under his touch.

Once all the bandages were changed, Nora offered that they take a little nap before getting back to it. Sam agreed and grabbed the talkie to warn Victor before lighting a cigarette and going for a walk to be alone with his thoughts.


	7. Trouble

When Nora woke up about an hour later, she expected to find Sam half asleep next to her. She'd wake him up gently, they'd walk back to the plane together and everything would be fine.

Unfortunately, that's not what life had planned for her. Sam was nowhere to be seen, again. And she was about to yell his name when he arrived in front of her. Along with about 4 armed goons and her psychotic ex-boyfriend, with a gun to his temple and spitting blood. Unconsciously, Nora took a hold of the gun Sam had given her earlier and pointed it to Andrew's head, only to have heavy guns pointed back at her. Andrew's deep blue eyes were looking right into hers intently and a wicked smile was painted on his face.

"Nora, Nora, Nora. How nice it is to see you again, alive and well. You look beautiful as ever, by the way."

"I'm afraid I can't say the same about you. You look like shit. Matches your personality." She answered sternly, anger slowly taking a hold of her. Andrew laughed and the sound made Nora shiver.

"Still got that fire in you. I've always liked that." He cleared his throat and pressed the gun harder against Sam's head. "Anyways. Let's talk business, shall we? It seems like you have something I want."

"Wonder what it could be...sanity? Intelligence? Morals?" Nora said sarcastically, knowing full well that he was talking about the location of the treasure but trying to buy some time to come up with a plan.

"Look at you being a smart-ass! I'm afraid I don't need any of the things you said, but rather something more...concrete. And if you don't give it to me right about now, I'll shoot your boyfriend in the head and then I'll kill you. Oh, and by the way, you could've done better than...that." He said, looking at Sam with disgust and hatred.

"What now, you're jealous?"

"Of course I am! Look at you...look at that beautiful face, those eyes, those lips. And your body, oh God what I'd do to put my hands all over it again..." His eyes were roaming Nora's body, filled with lust which made her shiver out of disgust. That's when she snapped. She raised her arm and shot just above his head. Andrew lowered his head instinctively, bringing Sam down with him. "I see you don't care about your man's life that much, little Nora." He threw Sam into the arms of two men next to him, who started beating him senseless.

"Andrew stop it!"

Nora felt tears creeping up in her eyes while watching Sam being beaten like that. She could sense that the sick game Andrew had been playing with her years ago was starting all over again and she hated the feeling. She hated knowing he still had this control over her.

"Apologize for trying to kill me and I'll see what I can do."

"I wasn't trying to kill you, I was trying to make you shut the hell up." Andrew turned his head towards his men.

"Go harder." The punches and kicks became more intense and Sam was groaning in pain. The sight made Nora sick to her stomach.

"I'm sorry! Please make it stop Andrew, I'm sorry." She almost screamed, tears threatening to fall down her cheeks soon. Andrew smiled contently and, with a nod, made his men stop. Sam fell down on his knees, his face bloody and his breathing irregular. Nora wanted to run to him, but she retained herself and pointed the gun back to Andrew's head.

"How about you bring that gun down now, huh? So we can talk like adults, work out a deal and go on with our lives."

"Only if your men do it first."

"How do I get the guarantee that you won't just shoot me then?"

"You still have him." She nodded towards Sam, who was still on the ground, trying to get back to his feet. His face was covered with half-dried blood now and his breathing was almost back to normal. "I don't know what'll happen to him if I shoot. That's your guarantee."

"Alright then." The mercenaries pulled down their guns and so did Nora. Andrew cleared his throat and started searching for something in his pocket. "I'll let him walk free if you give me whatever it is you found at her manor."

Nora was about to protest when he raised a hand to make her stop before she even started. When he pulled his other hand out of his pocket, there was a small zip bag filled with a white powder. Andrew opened it carefully, licked the tip of his finger and stuck some of the powder to it before putting it on his gums. He then took a deep breath and looked back at Nora. "And if you come back to me."

"What...are you serious? Do you really think I'm just going to drop everything and go back with you?" Nora blurted out, almost shocked that he even thought about it.

"Come on babe. We have good memories together, remember? Don't you want to keep the bad times behind us and start over?" He got closer to her with each word and ended up right in front of her. Sam was back on his feet now and wanted to step in, to stop him from playing with her. But he was too weak and two men were holding him back. "I miss you, Nora. I really do. I miss the way you'd call me babe, the way you'd look at me like I was the only thing that ever mattered...I miss the taste of your lips and the feeling of your skin under mine…" He reached out for her hand but she backed away almost instantly, not wanting to let him get some kind of power over her.

"You're sick."

"I just love you so damn much, baby. Ever since you left, you've been the only thing on my mind."

"Oh, fuck off." Nora snapped, getting back in front of him, ready for a confrontation. She needed to get things out of her system now that he was right there. "When you love someone you don't hurt them like you hurt me. You can say whatever the hell you want about how you love me and how you care for me and all that pseudo-romantic crap you've been serving me for years, but I'm not getting back with you. You hear me? Not now, not in a year, not ever. You're a fucking mess and I won't let you drag me down with you again. Go to hell."

That's when she got the idea that would save them both. As Andrew was responding to her attack by insulting her or trying too hard again, she pulled out the letter that she found back at the mansion and held it out for him to see. He stopped talking instantly, eyeing the piece of paper with envy.

"You changed your mind?" He asked, hopeful that he was right, that she had agreed to his terms. Instead, Nora smirked and took a big step back. She looked down the cliff, behind her.

"There's a roaring river down there. If you don't agree to let us go on my terms, I jump and you lose every single clue to the treasure and the girl you claim to love. If you agree, I give you the parchment we just found, Sam and I get to leave and we won't get in your way again. Your call, big guy." She was looking at him intently, with newfound confidence. She was sure her plan was going to work. It had to.

"You wouldn't dare to jump." Andrew laughed, taking a step towards her.

"You'd be surprised." She answered sternly, taking a step back, moving closer to the edge. Sam was still in the background of their little battlefield, watching the scene with disbelief.

"Nora don't do it!" He screamed weakly, before getting punched in the stomach again.

"Listen to your man over there. Think about all the years you wasted looking for this thing. You're not going to throw it all away by pride, are you?" He took another step forward, a much more serious look appearing on his face as she took a step back.

"Take another step and you'll be able to witness it all first hand." Nora said calmly, holding on tightly to the parchment in her hand.

"Fine. I'm not moving anymore. What are your terms?"

"You let us go in exchange for the paper. And I want a guarantee that we'll be safe until we leave the island."

"Why would I accept those terms?"

"Because you don't have any chance of seeing that treasure if I die. And he won't tell you shit." She nodded towards Sam, who was watching it all intensely. He hadn't known Nora for a long time but he knew she would jump if he didn't accept.

"What makes you think I need the two of you to find this treasure?" He took a step forward, making Nora walk backward up to the very edge of the cliff. Sam tried to talk her out of it again but was hit before he could say anything. Andrew's eyes widened and he put his arms out to calm things down a notch.

"If you didn't need us, you would've found it long ago. If you didn't need us, you wouldn't have followed us here. But face it, you wouldn't be able to find any stupid treasure on your own even if it was right in front of you. Where would you be now if I hadn't been there to decipher all the enigmas, the riddles, to translate the letters, to make links between things written on paper and historical events? All this time we were working together, I did all the work. All you provided was guns and money and fancy shit we didn't even need. The only thing bigger than your stupidity is your ego. Now, I'm sure you don't want to have to give up on something you've searched for so long by pride, do you?" A knowing smirk was plastered on Nora's face now. She knew she had won. She was looking right into Andrew's eyes, waiting for the moment he'd either snap or give in. They stayed like that for a minute before Andrew's fists unclenched and he let out a sigh of defeat.

"Okay. But I'll leave you 30 minutes before I give myself the right to shoot you whenever I see you."

"Deal."

The men who were holding Sam let him go and Nora ran to him, making sure he could stand on his own before turning back to Andrew.

"One more thing."

"What else do you want?"

"My gun. The one you bought me in Japan. I want it back."

"I don't have it."

"Give it back. I know you have it right here."

Andrew rolled his eyes and reached into his holster, pulling out a beautiful black and white gun with the drawing of a few roses from the barrel all the way down to the handle. He handed it to Nora, who handed the parchment in exchange. She went back to Sam and took his arms to wrap it around her shoulders so she could help him walk. They exchanged a worried look before turning back to Andrew.

"30 minutes." He said sternly, his arms crossed on his chest.

Nora nodded and both her and Sam started walking back towards the plane. They walked through the forest silently for about ten minutes before Nora started to talk.

"Do you think you can run?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know…" Sam answered just as quietly. "I can try, though."

"Good. I'm gonna stop holding you and we're gonna run, okay?"

"Sure...but why?"

"We only have twenty minutes left and I'm pretty sure he's following us. If he catches up with us you and Sully are dead and I'll have no choice but to go back with him."

"Okay. I definitely can run now."

Nora nodded as Sam took his arms off her shoulder and they both started running as fast as they could through the lush tropical forest. Just as the plane was in sight, they heard someone yell "They're here!" and before they knew it, bullets were flying all around them. Sully didn't waste a minute to start up the plane's engine and grab a gun to help his partners. Sam and Nora eventually reached the plane without a scratch and soon enough, the three were up in the air, Andrew's men still shooting up the plane. Sam collapsed on the seats and laid down, panting and disheveled. Nora immediately grabbed a first aid kit and sat on the floor next to him to patch him up, completely forgetting about her own injuries. Sully didn't focus on that part yet as his main goal was to get the plane away from the gunshots and from sight.

After about 30 minutes, Sam was completely patched up and sleeping, Nora was attending her own wounds. Sully cleared his throat, which made Nora turn towards him.

"So...what happened?"

"Andrew happened." Nora sighed, standing up from her seat and sitting next to Sully.

"What?"

"He's been following us since Panama, I think."

"You mean...the guy who was watching you back in King's Bay…"

"It was one of his guys. He's the one who did all of this to me. Sam shot him in the head and saved me." Nora said softly, turning to look at Sam behind them.

"What happened to him?"

"He encountered Andrew and his guys, got beaten up."

"Goddamnit…"

"Yeah."

"What did he want?"

"For me to go back with him and find the treasure together or some shit like that."

"If I had been there-"

"I know, I know." Nora smiled weakly to her uncle, who returned the gesture.

"Hey, you didn't tell me where we're going."

"Oh yeah. We're going home." Nora smiled confidently to Sully, who turned his head back in front of him. He set the destination to Santiago de Cuba and looked back at his niece.

"Go get some sleep, we'll switch place halfway through."

"No problem."

Nora got up and laid down on the seats across from Sam, watching him tossing and turning as he slept. She stayed like that for a while, wondering what he could be dreaming of, what made him so agitated, before falling asleep herself.


	8. Fire Breather

Andrew Burgess and Nora Sullivan met in the summer of the year 2013, thanks to Nora's uncle, Victor. He told Andrew about his niece, who was looking for the same treasure as him, and Andrew offered her to partner up and find it together. She agreed, thinking that they'd be better together than alone. There was a lot of flirting at first, little innuendos here and there, flirty jokes and touches. And then it happened. They had sex. Once. Twice. And then many times after that. They kissed. Passionately, intensely, like their life depended on it. They talked for hours about their life, their feelings, the treasure. They'd lay in bed for hours, just holding onto each other like they were their lifeline. Two beautiful, broken minds and bodies being one, slightly less broken and ten times more beautiful. They didn't have a lot of leads and ran into a lot of dead ends but at least they had each other, that's what mattered.

After a year and a half, Andrew started to change. He was tired of not finding anything and wanted more. He hired a group of 20 mercs to "clean his way", thinking that they were not the only ones looking for that treasure and wanting to eliminate concurrence. He was so obsessed with the treasure that he became paranoid and took a lot more drugs that usual, becoming more irritable and violent. Nora didn't recognize him, she felt like she didn't know him anymore. It wasn't him hitting his own associates and punching walls. It wasn't him being all trigger happy and shooting everyone who opposed him or who was going after the treasure. It wasn't him doing cocaine five times a day to "relieve the stress". It wasn't him insulting Nora when she didn't find anything, beating her senseless and ending up crying on the floor begging her to stay, repeating that he was sorry and that he loved her about a thousand times, promising he wouldn't be like that anymore. But he was like that all the time. And Nora had enough. She loved him more than anything, but not that version of him. So she packed her bags, and said she was leaving. She said it once. Twice. And many times after that. But she never left. Not because she wanted to stay, but because everytime she said she was leaving, she'd end up with a gun on her temple, Andrew with the finger on the trigger, ready to fire if she moved. He needed her to find the treasure, he knew it. But he couldn't stand to see her walk away from him. He couldn't handle the thought of her working with someone else, or on her own, and finding the treasure before him. He couldn't handle the thought of her fucking someone else, kissing someone else, opening up to someone else. Loving someone else. He was selfish and wanted her all to himself. Her mind, her knowledge, her smile, her intelligence, her body, her everything. And if he couldn't have her, no one else could.

One day, in Mexico, she really couldn't do it anymore. It broke her to see him like this, to see herself so weak and to see them so torn apart. So in the night, she called Sully, took her bags, and left, hoping to stay unseen. But he was right there, waiting for her with his gun, and she didn't stop. She ran to Sully's car as fast as she could, tears running down her cheeks. And as she got to the car, she felt it. Once in the left shoulder. Once in the right leg. Once in her gut. She fell forward and heard her uncle scream her name, reaching to catch her in his arms. She could barely feel anything as she was dragged into the backseat of the car and as Sully started driving towards the nearest hospital. Andrew was kneeled on the floor, crying out, his head in his hands with the gun still in one.

When Nora came back to her senses, she panicked, knowing he would try to track her down and get his revenge. She moved out of her oldest sister's apartment, making sure she and her family moved out to another one as well, changed her last name and moved in with her other sister in San Francisco, knowing he wouldn't find her there. She decided to take a step back from the treasure hunting world and focused on her career as a journalist and documentary writer. Only to dive back into the business when new clues about Anne Bonny's treasure surfaced.

And now, here she was, asleep in her uncle's plane, with wounds and broken ribs, a handsome partner and a lot to think about.


	9. Shelter

Nora woke up to the sound of the plane door opening with a loud thud. She opened her eyes suddenly, not really understanding what was going on or where they were. Sully was supposed to wake her up for the other half of the flight...but as she looked through the plane window, she recognized the landscape of the city she called her home. She stood up and stretched very quickly, then remembering about her injuries. She looked around and, seeing she was alone, decided to step out of the plane to see what was going on. When she set foot outside of the aircraft, the first thing she noticed was the bright and blinding sun that was shining right into her eyes. As she took her first few steps she instinctively brought her hand to her eyes to protect herself from the sunlight, which caused her to bump into someone immediately after taking a step.

"Woah, careful here sweetheart." She recognized Sam's voice and chuckle and lifted her head to look at him.

"Oh sorry, I just woke up and the sun's in my eyes…"

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

Sam gave her an honest smile which made her heart skip a beat. Since when did Sam have that effect on her? She was staring at him blankly while thinking about it, when she was brought back to reality by the sound of fingers clapping right in front of her.

"What?"

"It's impolite to stare." Sam said with a smirk, using the same expression she used back at the lake in Libertalia.

"I wasn't staring." Nora countered, looking around to avoid his eyes and hide the fact that she was blatantly lying.

"C'mon, sweetheart, just admit that you can't keep your eyes off me…"

"I was daydreaming, you just happened to be in front of me." She defended and looked back at him only to see his signature smirk and amused eyes. "Stop it, I wasn't staring at you!"

"Sure, sure."

"Whatever." She sighed. "Two questions: how did we get here and where is Sully?" Sam squinted a little in confusion before pointing at the plane.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh my God, I know we got here by plane! But Uncle Victor was supposed to wake me up for the last half of the flight…"

"I woke up just before Victor was going to wake you up but you were sleeping soundly. You looked like you needed it so I took over for you." The last part sounded honest, which made Nora inexplicably happy and extremely thankful.

"You didn't have to do it you know ?"

"I know. But I did it anyways so you might as well just thank me." Sam said with a smug smile.

"Thank you, Sam. For real."

"Don't sweat it, doll."

He winked and pulled a cigarette out of his pack, offering one to Nora who accepted it gladly. They smoked together in silence for a little while before Nora remembered that Sam didn't answer her second question.

"Hey, you didn't tell me where my uncle was."

"Oh, yeah. He just went to see the guy who runs the airfield to get our situation regulated and to see if he could rent a car. Maybe he's checking for a hotel too, I don't know. He said we needed to stay here until he's done." Sam explained, crushing his cigarette under his boot.

"Okay." Nora said with a side smile, looking at the small building that served as the welcome desk for the airfield. She recognized her uncle's figure walking towards them, a lit cigar in his mouth.

"Hey there, kid. How was your little nap?" Victor said when he got close enough to his niece and his partner. He affectionately caressed her shoulder and smiled softly.

"Good, thanks. Feels good to be home." She returned the smile.

"Sure does. Let's get going, shall we?"

Sam and Nora both nodded as they retrieved their bags from the plane, locking it up before heading towards the parking lot along with Victor. He led them towards a Jeep and soon enough, they were all on their way to the place they were going to stay at. Nora was sitting in the backseat, earphones on, window open and her head peeking out of it, looking around the city. She had a wide smile plastered on her face, and Sam couldn't stop looking at her through the rear view mirror. She was radiating happiness and he found it fascinating. Sully couldn't help but notice the way Sam was staring at his niece, and eventually decided to say something about it.

"What's up between you two?" He said, making sure not to talk too loudly so only Sam could hear him.

"Huh?" Sam moved his eyes from her to Sully, looking at him confusingly. "What are you talking about?"

"C'mon Sam, don't pretend that you don't get me. I've seen the way you two look at each other."

"I don't…I mean…there's nothing." Sam stuttered, turning his eyes away from Sully to look through the window.

"I may be old, but I'm not stupid, I see things." He shook his head in disbelief that Sam would lie to him like that. "Let me just say something, even though there's apparently nothing…don't you even think about hurting her, alright? She's been through enough shit in her life already, she doesn't need an idiot like you making things worse."

"Is that what this is about? Listen, I think Nora is old enough to make her own choices and take care of herself, I'm pretty sure she doesn't need you to micromanage her love life." Sam defended, taking a cigarette and lighting it out of frustration that Sully was so wary of him.

"When it comes to you, I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"What is that supposed to mean?" The younger man said angrily, really getting annoyed by the way Victor was talking to him and what image he had of him.

"It means that I know you, and I know her. If there was ever to be a thing between you two, she'd get hooked eventually and you'd dump her with no mercy like every girl you ever dated. You've been doing that ever since I met you and I don't want her to be treated the same. She's worth much more than that. She's not just another girl you get to screw around with and discard when you get bored."

Sam took a moment to think about his retaliation. _Technically_ , Victor wasn't lying. He _had_ been screwing around and dumping girl after girl. But he knew that if Nora and him had a thing, he wouldn't be the one to cut things off. She was everything he wanted, and even though he didn't have real feelings for her just yet, he felt something shift in him when she was around, and that alone was the sign that she was different, as cliché as it sounds. He couldn't say that to Victor though, could he? No. No, he'd make something up and the subject would be over and they wouldn't talk about it ever again. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

"Okay you might be right about the way I treat women, but if it can make you feel better, I'm absolutely not interested in Nora. I mean she's great and all but..." Sam shrugged it off, taking a long drag off his cigarette and turning his head towards the window again.

"Just be careful with her." Sully retorted, wanting to get this conversation over with.

There were a few minutes of silence before Sully sighed in content.

"Here's our hotel."

Sam's eyes widened a little when he saw the building they were heading towards. It was a beautiful colonial house with a big terrain, sitting by a cliff, overlooking the turquoise water of the Caribbean Sea. Sully parked the car next to two others and him and Nora almost jumped out of it, taking their bags and quickly getting to the door. Sam was trailing behind them, still in awe at the sight of it all. When he looked behind him, he could see a few houses just like this one and a little bit after, the entrance of the main city.

In front of the door, Nora was almost jumping around with impatience. When she saw that Victor was waiting for Sam to get to them before knocking, she took the matter in her own hands and did it herself. A voice was heard saying something in Spanish inside the house, so she knocked again. The door opened to reveal a seemingly annoyed lady in her 60s, with short dark curly hair and her skin a few shades darker than Nora's. Her expression changed from annoyment to surprise when she saw who was at the door, and she immediately took Nora in her arms, muttering a bunch of words in Spanish.

Sam arrived to the door to the sight of pure joy and love emanating from both Nora and the woman hugging her. He just stood next to Sully, who was watching with a content smile on his face.

"Uh…what is going on here?"

"Nothing, just a heartfelt mother/daughter reunion."

"Mother…?" Sam muttered under his breath, his brows furrowing slightly before his facial expression relaxed at the sight of a seemingly happy Nora not wanting to let go of her mother. Sully cleared his throat loudly to get their attention, before hugging Nora's mom as well.

"Sam, this is my mother, Catalina. Mama, this is Sam, Victor's business partner." Nora introduced before getting her bag from the floor.

"Hi. Nice to meet you." Sam extended his hand towards Catalina, who just waved it off and gave him a short hug instead, which left him surprised.

"Nice to meet you, too." She smiled widely at him before motioning towards the door. "Please come in, make yourself at home." Sam smiled slightly as he noticed her slight Spanish accent when she was speaking English. He found it endearing. He nodded and followed her inside.

The house was clean, well-kept. The front door led inside a small hall with three arches leading to the rest of the house. In front was the largest arch, which led to a hallway and to the stairs. To the left was the kitchen and to the right was what looked like a dining room with a huge veranda next to it. Catalina was leading the way and took everyone to the living room via the hallway. The living room was big and with a lot of windows, which offered a fantastic view of the light blue water of the sea. Sam noticed some family pictures on the walls and the furniture, which showed Catalina, Nora, her sisters and their father. One thing that stood out on the pictures is that the father was replaced by Victor on those where Nora looked like she was in her late teens. Sam's eyes were fixed on the many pictures and he didn't pay attention to the others. They reminded him of the time where he used to have this kind of family pictures in his living room. The time where he still had a real family. Lost in his thoughts, he was startled by a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see a laughing Nora right in front of him.

"You okay?" She said, still giggling.

"Yeah, I was just…checking out the pictures." He cleared his throat. "Why?"

"You looked like you were in another world. Also we've been calling your name for 3 minutes and you never heard us so…we were kinda worried you had gone deaf or something." She laughed.

"Oh, sorry I was thinking and…whatever. You were saying?"

"I'm gonna get you to your room, give you a little tour of the house and then my mom's gonna take a look at our injuries. She's a nurse so it'll be good to hear her advice and all." She took her bag and nodded towards the stairs. "Vamos!"

Sam took his bag as well and followed Nora upstairs, again taking a good look at the house. There were five bedrooms and a study that belonged to Nora's dad upstairs. Nora stopped in front of a room and opened the door, throwing her bag on the bed and taking a look around, a smile plastered on her face. Sam stepped inside the room carefully, again paying attention to the pictures.

"It was my room every time we visited my abuelos." Nora said gently.

"You grandparents had this house?"

"Yeah. Well, my parents bought it for the entire family but they used to live here. Was better than their tiny flat in the city." She shrugged and walked past Sam to open the room right opposite of hers. "You're gonna sleep here, in my sister Marnie's room." Sam followed again, throwing his bag next to the bed. "Careful not to break anything, she notices this stuff." Nora chuckled before heading out and back downstairs.

Sam took a moment to get used to his new surroundings before going back to the living room, where Catalina was serving drinks and snacks. The little family was talking and laughing, and Sam felt a little out of place around them. He never really had this kind of thing in his life, and to see them all so happy and radiant around each other made him feel left out. He was just leaning on the arch frame, looking at his partners uncomfortably when Nora's stare locked with his. She smiled and nodded for him to join them, which he did a little shyly. He sat on the couch next to her and was immediately offered a small snack by Catalina. He accepted it with a small smile and started eating, slowly finding comfort in the small talk of the family around him.

When they were done eating, Victor quickly cleaned the coffee table to make room for Catalina's medical equipment. Nora had insisted for Sam to go first as some of his injuries were still fresh. He took off his shirt before lying down on one of the couches, earning a glance from Nora. Her mother patched him up quickly, giving him advice on how to replace the bandages before asking him to make room for Nora. She repeated the procedure, taking off her shirt and lying on the couch, and Sam took a peek at her as well.

At the sight of her daughter's blue ribs, Catalina started scolding her about the dangers of treasure hunting, soon taking her frustration out on Victor as well, telling him that he shouldn't allow her to tag along with him anymore. Sam carefully avoided to take part in the argument, discreetly slipping outside for a cigarette.

When Sam went back inside, everyone had seemingly calmed down but the tension in the atmosphere was almost too heavy to bear. Catalina was putting her equipment back in her bag, Nora was wincing as she stood up from the couch and Victor was just looking out the window, thinking. That was one part of having a family Sam didn't miss: the arguments. There were a lot of those in his house, and they never ended well for anyone. And while the current situation was nothing like the ones he experienced back then, it still wasn't a pleasant moment.

"I'll be in the kitchen making dinner." Catalina said just before exiting the room, leaving Sam, Víctor and Nora alone in the living room.

Víctor and Nora exchanged a look before the older man left to follow Catalina to the kitchen. Sam eventually decided to sit down on a couch, not at ease with the way the situation played out. He was soon joined by Nora, who had just finished putting her shirt back on.

"Sorry about that. Family stuff." Nora apologised quietly.

"No problem."

"My mom doesn't really like it when Víctor takes me on his 'reckless adventures'." She chuckled lightly and laid back into the couch. "She's scared that I might die or something."

"That's a pretty legitimate concern." Sam added with a chuckle and an amused tone.

"What are you implying? That I'm not good at this?"

"No...just...there's always a risk. Happens even to the best." He said sheepishly. "I wasn't trying to say you were bad or-"

"I know you weren't trying to say that, I was just fucking with you." She laughed and punched his shoulder playfully. "I like it when you get all sheepish/flustered like that, it's cute."

"Uh...thanks?"

"You're welcome."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of Catalina yelling and Víctor sounding like he was trying to calm her down. Sam looked at Nora curiously.

"Shouldn't we...go see what's going on?"

"Nah, that's how they solve their problems. Mom yells at Víctor who just stays calm until she bursts into tears and he puts some sense into her. That's how it used to happen with my dad as well, trust me, you don't want to go in there and make it worse."

"Okay...sounds, uh...normal."

"I'm so sorry we put you through that. Really."

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

He offered her a kind smile which she returned. His eyes started travelling from hers to her lips, which looked so inviting at this very moment. The noise coming from the kitchen had died down now. He noticed how her face was slowly getting closer to his as they were both leaning in, like some kind of invisible force was controlling them. Nora's eyes fluttered closed as their lips were just a few inches away from each other. They were just about to touch when footsteps were heard in the hallway, sounding louder and louder by the second. Sam and Nora had the same reaction, which was to back away from each other quickly and trying their best to look like nothing had ever happened. By the time Víctor walked into the living room, Nora was typing something on her phone and Sam was flipping through the pages of a book that sat on the coffee table in front of the couch. They both lifted their heads in sync when Víctor cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Cat is going out to buy some food, we have about three hours before dinner to get to work and find where Anne Bonny hid her goddamn treasure."

"Did she give you the keys to the office?"

"No, why?"

"Dad had some documents about the treasure in there. Mom keeps it locked so I don't go in there and find some new treasure to look for." She sighed. "Is anyone here good at lockpicking?"

"I'm pretty good at it." Sam said with a shrug.

"Great. Come with me."

Nora got up and nodded for Sam to follow her upstairs again. Víctor stayed downstairs reluctantly, choosing to trust the two of them not to do anything he'd deem stupid - like hooking up.

Once in front of the office, Sam managed to pick the lock without much trouble, and soon enough the pair was inside the office. It was a traditional messy office. Oak wood furniture, bookshelves against almost every wall, a huge painting of a landscape...the desk was covered with papers and the floor with boxes which were filled with papers. Nora walked around the room in awe, inspecting books and files scattered around the room.

"That's one hell of an office. What does your dad do?" Sam asked while looking around in the boxes, trying to find something that could help.

"He was an archaeologist." Nora answered quietly.

"Was…?" Sam asked, having a little idea of what the answer might be.

"He died when I was 17." She turned to look at him, anticipating his reaction. "It's okay, don't apologise. You couldn't know." She smiled lightly to reassure him, but Sam could see the slight hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Were you two close?" He asked reluctantly after a short moment of silence, afraid of her reaction.

"Yeah, pretty close. He was the best father you could ever wish for." She started searching the office for other papers, a nostalgic smile on her face.

"And how did he...um…"

"Cancer. I don't remember what type and I don't really care." She shrugged it off, pulling a box from under the desk and searching through it. "I think I found the documents."

"How come your dad had documents about Anne Bonny's treasure?" Sam asked as he joined Nora by the desk.

"He was looking for it for a little while. I took some of those when I started looking for it but I never managed to get these ones." She shuffled through the papers and handed what looked like a journal to Sam, along with some other parchments. She took a file and stood up. "Here, I think that's everything."

Sam got out of the office with all the papers and the journal in hand, and was expecting to hear Nora behind him. When he didn't, he turned around and saw her standing in the office, staring at her late father's desk. She looked as if she was somewhere else, tears starting to form in her eyes. Sam felt something shift in him when he saw her like that, and he kinda wanted to drop everything and take her in his arms so she could feel better. But he couldn't. Firstly because he didn't know if they were close enough, and secondly because some of the papers he was holding were priceless and hundreds of years old. Instead he just cleared his throat loudly and gave her a compassionate smile when she looked at him. She immediately wiped out the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks and grabbed the documents she needed before heading out and closing the door. She then headed down the stairs, fast and silent.

The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon reading countless letters that seemingly didn't have anything to do with the treasure, trying to find some hidden meaning or messages, translating every word that wasn't written in english, flipping through notes written by Nora's father. Sam and Nora were smoking cigarette after cigarette as the frustration grew and Víctor had smoked two cigars in three hours. When Catalina came back, she found them arguing over the meaning of a sentence and just shook her head disapprovingly before heading to the kitchen.

"Guys...we're not getting anywhere." Nora sighed while Sam and Víctor kept arguing. "Oh my God, guys!" She ended up yelling for them to stop talking. The two men immediately calmed down and looked at Nora, frustrated. "What we need to do right now is stop everything and start over. This...whatever we're doing right now, is not good."

"Oh come on, we've been at it for three hours, we're not starting over." Sam complained.

"Yeah, well we're not getting anything out of this so might as well redo it all." Nora snorted and sorted out the papers on the coffee table. "So. Everyone take a file, we read everything in it and try to analyse and if anyone finds something, we talk about it."

"This is gonna take way too long. We don't have that much time...what if Andrew finds us?" Víctor offered, sitting back in his armchair.

"We're not going any faster by fighting over anything and everything. So, with all due respect, if you don't have another idea, I think we're gonna go with mine. If Sam's alright with it, of course." All heads turned towards Sam, who was gonna be the decisive element here. He took a long, deep breath, thinking about his choice, before grabbing a file on the table.

"Better get to it now, as you said Víctor, we don't have much time."

"Alright then."

Víctor conceded, taking a file and reading the documents in it. Nora followed soon, a victorious smirk on her face. She took a look at Sam, who was looking at her as well. She mouthed a small "thank you", to which he responded with a nod and a smile. Then, they were back to reading and analysing old papers and notes. They stayed like that in silence for what seemed to be an eternity, until Sam called their names, extracting two papers from the file he was holding. He started explaining that the first one was a letter from a cuban pirate to his lover, in which he stated to be accompanying Bonny on an expedition on the other side of the island. In the second letter, he was explaining that they had a problem along the way and had to stop in a forest not too far from Santiago, and that Bonny was going to take them all to a safe-haven afterwards. The problems with those letters were that they weren't date and there was no mention of what kind of expedition it was. But they were on the right track, they knew it.

After this discovery, the treasure hunters all agreed to resume the research on another day so that they could enjoy the evening and the night off. Instead, they all went to the kitchen to help Catalina with the dinner.

She was making a cuban dish called ropa vieja, made of shredded beef, rice, olives, red peppers and capers, and soon Nora washed her hands to help her mother with everything. Víctor went to stand besides Catalina to learn and help was well, leaving Sam leaning against the doorframe, unsure of what to do. Seeing him hanging around like a lost puppy, Nora was quick to grab his hand and to have him help her with the rice and the seasoning. It was a nice change of pace from the past few days for the three adventurers, who hadn't realized how much they needed some down time until they arrived here.

After a little while, dinner was finally done and the little group went to the dining room to enjoy it, along with some mojitos. Once they were done eating and drinking everything, Víctor and Catalina decided to clean up together so that Nora and Sam could have some time to rest and let their injuries heal. Of course, that's not what they had in mind for the rest of the night. Instead, Nora offered Sam to go for a walk by the cliff, to have a look at the sea. He accepted and soon enough, the pair was sitting on the edge of the cliff, smoking and admiring the sea, which was illuminated by the moonlight. At first, it was all very silent. None of them dared breaking the calm of the moment. That was until Sam felt some questions on the tip of his tongue,and felt like asking them all at once. He tried to hold them in - he really did - but his curiosity was stronger than his will. He couldn't help it, for some reason he just needed to know as many things as he could about Nora. She was intriguing, and he couldn't really figure her out, which was bothering him a lot. So he began to ask about her childhood, her dad, and her teenage years.

Nora was taken aback by the sudden flow of questions, and took a long look at Sam before turning her head back to the sea. Sam looked down, thinking he had blown it, but then she cleared her throat and started talking.

"As I said earlier, my dad was pretty good at being a dad. He worked for the Museum of Natural History in New York and they had him retrieve stuff all over the world so he was travelling a lot, but when he was here he made sure to make the most of it and spent most of his time with us. He was telling us incredible stories about ancient civilizations, took us on walks in Central Park...he was always making sure that we knew he loved us even if he wasn't home a lot." She smiled remembering those happy moments she shared with her sisters and her dad, but soon her teary eyes were slightly glowing under the moonlight. "Víctor was coming around quite a lot too, he was having fun teaching us bad words and making my parents kinda mad, which was pretty cool. All in all, I had a loving family, I wasn't very poor thanks to my dad's job, I had good friends and good grades...happy childhood and all that. Things started to change when he died." She marked a pause to take a long drag of her cigarette. "I was 17, my sisters were off to college, my mom was working like crazy for my college fund, my friends were busy...I felt pretty alone and sad all the time. At first my mom thought it was normal, I had just lost my dad after all, but after some time she realized something was off, took me to the doctor...turns out I had depression. Still have it. She started helping me and...yeah, eventually I pulled myself together the best I could and managed to get into Columbia journalism school. Spent my holidays treasure hunting with my uncle and your brother and lying to my mom...nothing too crazy, really. I mean, I was treasure hunting but apart from that nothing was out of the ordinary. Then I graduated, got my own place, started working freelance, did a few documentaries with Elena...then I met Andrew and everything went to shit." She crushed her cigarette and put it beside her so that she could throw it in the trash later. Sam was expecting her to keep going, but after a little while he realised that wasn't going to happen. He decided not to push and stayed silent. "What about you?"

"What?" Sam said curiously, really not expecting her question.

"I just told you my life story, I wanna know yours now, otherwise it's not fair. So, what about you?"

Sam chuckled and processed to tell her about his complicated childhood, his mother's suicide, the orphanage, getting fired, leaving with Nathan and changing their names...he explained everything, just not going in full detail not to open some wounds that were still not fully mended. The one part he didn't really talk about was his prison stay in Panama. Those wounds were the freshest he had, and he tried his best to forget most of it.  
Without realising it, Nora and Sam spent most of the night talking about little things, details and anecdotes that happened in their lives. By the time they walked back to the house, it was well past three in the morning, and everything in the house was dark and silent. Once upstairs, Nora noticed that her uncle wasn't in his bedroom. She smirked, going to her mother's bedroom and looking discreetly through the semi opened door. The bedside lamp was on, and the small halo of light shined on her mother, Víctor's arms softly placed around her while her head was on his chest. She couldn't help but smile softly, slowly closing the door when heading back to the hallway. Sam looked at her curiously, wondering if she was going to say anything or just let it slide. When she walked past him to get to her room, he felt like he had his answer and walked to his room as well. He turned around just before going inside when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Nora, standing a little closer to him than usual, her eyes fixed on his lips. His eyes quickly imitated hers and settled on her beautifully formed lips. Just like earlier, they both leaned in slowly, except that this time they weren't interrupted when their lips were about to touch. The kiss was extremely soft, almost shy at first, before they both got more into it and it became more passionate. They could both tell that the other was really expecting it, waiting for it, maybe even aching for it. Sam's hands found Nora's hips, his thumbs tracing small circles over the fabric of her tee-shirt, while her hands settled on his jaw, slowly moving to his neck and to his hair. They both eventually pulled away, breathing heavily due to kissing for so long. Nora took a few steps back, still hazy from the kiss and reached the doorstep of her bedroom. She took one last look at Sam and gave him a genuine smile.

"Good night, Sam." She said quietly.

"Good night." He responded just as quietly.

They both went inside their room, puzzled and kinda overwhelmed by what had just happened.


	10. This is the Place

Nora got up quite early the next morning, although she didn't sleep very well the night before. It seemed that seeing Andrew in the flesh again triggered something in her, and the frequent nightmares she had after leaving him came back all of a sudden, except they were more intense and violent than before. They were always the same: she was in a rather dark motel room, the closed blinds only letting a few rays of sun inside the room. She was alone in bed, but she could hear voices taunting her and insulting her. She closed her eyes to make the voices stop and when they finally did, she opened them again. Andrew was standing in front of her, smiling. Only when she returned the smile, he yelled at her and grabbed her, throwing her on the floor and beating her, again and again, until she couldn't breathe. That's usually when she woke up, but this time it was different. He kept on getting her up and throwing her against the walls, hitting her and laughing maniacally. She woke up sweaty and panicked, tears streaming down her face, unable to fall back asleep due to the fear of living this nightmare again. Instead she spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, avoiding sleep like the plague. So when she saw the sunlight shining outside, she didn't waste time and got out of bed, heading for the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and took off the large tee shirt she used as pajamas, entering the bathtub to take a shower.  
She didn't realise how much time had passed since she turned the water on, letting the hot water run down her body. She had cleared her head of every negative thoughts and was just enjoying the time she had for herself. She was perfectly relaxed...until she heard the door open.

Nora froze under the water, her head immediately turning towards the door. Through the curtain, she could make out the silhouette of a tall man. She quickly turned off the water and cleared her throat, making sure they knew someone was in there.

"Shit!" They said, visibly started. "I didn't know someone was here, I'm sorry." Nora recognized Sam's voice and accent.

"It's okay." Nora chuckled, amused by his reaction. "I was done anyway. Could you just hand me my towel please?"

"You don't want me to get out?"

"Nah. As I said, I was done anyway."

Nora extended her arm over the curtain so that Sam could give her the towel. When he did, she wrapped herself in it and opened the curtain, falling face to face with a shirtless and sweaty Sam. She couldn't help but let her eyes linger on his incredibly toned torso, and he couldn't help but look at her. They stayed like that for a short while, admiring each other, before Sam cleared his throat and made room for Nora to step out of the shower. They were now both partly naked in the small bathroom, their bodies only a few inches away from each other.

"You're up early." Nora started, trying to make the obvious sexual tension fade away.

"Yeah, I uh…it's an old habit." He shrugged and offered a light smirk. "You're up early too."

"I had trouble sleeping tonight so…I stopped fighting it." She smiled, grabbing her clothes on the rack behind Sam, making their bodies touch a little bit. She backed away as soon as she felt shivers all over her body and reaffirmed her grip on her towel.

"Okay. Well…I hope you left me some hot water." Sam tried to joke, obviously to appease the tension.

"I can't promise that!" Nora answered, a little too enthusiastic for it to seem genuine.

She eventually exited the bathroom after another awkward silence and went back to her bedroom. She closed the door and leaned against it, taking a deep breath and feeling a light tingle between her legs. She regained her composure and got dressed up, before sitting on her bed and grabbing her phone. It had been a while since she even turned it on, so it was natural that she'd have a lot of missed calls…all from her sister. She listened to one of the voicemails.

"Nora, what did I tell you about going treasure hunting again? You need to stop this bullshit, it's dangerous and…well, you know what happened with Andrew. I don't want to have you mixed up in a messy situation that could end even worse than the last. And, fuck, you have bills to pay! You can't quit jobs after jobs just so you can make time for another stupid hunt! I just…I hope you're doing okay. Call me as soon as you can and please, please, be careful. I love you, numbskull."

She sighed and deleted the voice messages, that all sounded more or less the same. She then threw her phone on her bed and dressed up, brushed her hair a little bit and headed out for breakfast. Victor was already sitting at the table, attempting to read the local newspaper with a coffee in one hand and the paper in the other. Nora snuck behind him and wrapped her hands around him, planting a kiss on his left cheek. Victor immediately smiled and put down his coffee to put his hand over his niece's.

"How you doing, tio?" Nora asked, gently taking back her arms and going to sit across from her uncle.

"Good, good, what about you, kid?"

"I'm fine." She shrugged and grabbed a mug and the coffee pot, filling her mug with the black liquid.

"Just fine?"

"I didn't sleep very well."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, tio." She chuckled. "I bet you slept well." She added with a smirk as Victor gave her a curious look. "I saw you and mom last night."

"Oh. Well…" Victor was visibly embarrassed. He felt bad about the relationship he had with Catalina, considering she was his brother's widow.

"It's okay. You both deserve a little bit of love and happiness, after all this time… No one's gonna be mad." She gave him a reassuring smile, which he returned before taking a sip of his coffee.

Nora started eating, enjoying the comfortable silence that had settled between her and Sully.

It wasn't long after this short exchange that Sam entered the dining room, giving Sully a simple smile and sitting opposite from Nora. He poured himself a cup of coffee and grabbed the newspaper that Víctor had definitely given up on. The comfortable silence that had settled between Victor and Nora turned into an awkward one with Sam around, so Sully decided to take the matters in his hands and started making small talk with his partner. Sam just kinda went with it and chatted about nothing and everything with Víctor. Nora felt a little out of place and interrupted everything with just one question.

"Hey, where's mom?"

"Oh. She went to the hospital quite early this morning so she could leave sooner in the afternoon." Victor simply stated, taking the occasion to get up from his chair and clear his side of the table. "I'm done eating. I'll be in the living room thinking about what we found yesterday if you need me."

Victor put his dirty dishes in the kitchen sink before heading to the living room and sitting down on the couch, lighting up a cigar and taking one of his brother's journals, reading through the notes.  
Silence had fallen again in the dining room, with Sam pretending to be interested in an article and Nora stirring her cup of coffee while stealing a few glances at Sam. She was trying to find something to say to break the ice and cut through the tension in the air. She cleared her throat, making Sam lift his head to look at her, a curious look on his face.

"So. How was your shower?" The question made her cringe internally, but that was the best she managed to come up with. She noticed Sam's amused expression and mentally scolded herself for being _so lame_.

"It was good. You actually left some hot water so it was perfect." He said with a smirk that made Nora want to kiss him on the spot for some reason.

"Oh. Good." Nora smiled and finished her cup of coffee.

Silence settled in the room again, this time more awkward than before. Nora tried to think of something else to say, and thought of something.

"Hey, what do you say we take all the info we have on the location of the treasure, find a good terrace in town and enjoy the sun while we work?" She asked with a smile while cleaning up her side of the table.

"Yeah, why not? I mean, we're in Cuba so we might as well enjoy the place." He shrugged and returned the smile before cleaning his side too.

Soon, the table was clean as if no one had ever eaten there, and Nora and Sam were ready to leave for the city. They offered to Sully but he politely declined, saying he needed some peace and quiet before going back to running around in the jungle.

Santiago de Cuba was extremely lively this time of the year. It was carnival time, and the streets were filled with music, food and alcohol. People were dancing, laughing, singing… it was truly amazing.

Nora and Sam were walking through the city with huge smiles on their face. They didn't waste any time taking part in the festivities and decided to head for a relatively quiet restaurant, choosing to get their research over with quickly so they could enjoy the evening in town.

It took them 3 hours of reading letters, notes and books to finally find a clue to the next step. It was in Sam's pile, a bunch of letter from one of Anne Bonny's sailors, all packed up and kept in a leather covered notebook. It wasn't clear whom the sailor was writing to, but the letter contained a lot of informations regarding the location of the treasure.

"He was giving instructions to the treasure so that the person he was writing to could find it and keep it for themselves." Nora stated after reading the letter.  
"Why would he do that? Anne obviously trusted him enough to bring him along, maybe she was even planning on giving him a cut or something...why would he betray her like that?" Sam thought out loud, taking a sip off his mojito.

Nora read the letter over and over, along with some others from the same sailor, and had a realization.

"His kid was sick."  
"What?"

"He had a wife and a kid over in Jamaica and his kid was sick. It was his plan all along to gain Bonny's trust and have access to the treasure. He left instructions in the letter so that he or his wife could go and get it after it was buried."

"So they'd have money to help their child." Sam sighed. "He must've died back in Libertalia during the riot. His last letter was from there."

"Poor guy. He did all this to help his family and died in the hell hole that was Libertalia." Nora sighed, looking over at all the letters scattered on the table.

"What if his wife found the treasure?"

"Honestly, I'd be glad if she did."

"But that would mean we did all of this for nothing..."

"You have to look at the bright side of things, Sam."

"There are bright sides to not getting the treasure?"

"Not, but to the adventure as a whole. For example, Andrew won't have it. I came back here. I got to meet you…" Nora trailed off, finishing her mojito.

Sam was a bit taken aback by the last few words, but he didn't mind. He had to admit that one of the things he would remember the most fondly about this was meeting Nora, too. He reached in his pocket and grabbed a cigarette. He offered one to Nora, who gladly accepted, and soon both were smoking, looking around them and at their papers, enjoying the heat and the relaxing atmosphere of the town. Nora cleared her throat and grabbed the letter again. She wouldn't want to admit it, but she kinda expected Sam to say something after she said she was happy she got to meet him, and was disappointed that he just...pretended she said nothing. _Maybe he's just surprised. Or maybe he doesn't care._ She took a long drag off her cigarette and read the letter again, trying to pinpoint the exact place the sailor was talking about.

"I think we did enough work for today, huh?" Sam said softly, putting the butt of his cigarette in the ashtray on the table.

"We still need to find the place...these instructions are not exactly clear." Nora countered, scratching the back of her neck nervously.

"Look, how about we take a little break, go home, relax for a little while and then see what we do?" Sam offered, trying to convince Nora. He wasn't doing it just for himself though. Sure he was tired and could use a little relaxing time, but he also wanted Nora to take a little time for herself. Plus, they were still pretty banged up from the injuries they received in Libertalia, and a little more sleep could only make them better. More concentrated.

"I don't know…"

"Come on, there's no need to rush for once! We barely have any competition and we're getting really close to the treasure...it's basically ours at this point."

"What about Andrew?"

"What about him?"

"What if...what if he finds it before us, huh? Or what if he finds us here and decides to hurt one of us again, or worse, what if he decides to hurt my mother so that we lead him to the goddamn treasure?"

"Listen. I know you have your reasons to be scared of him, and I get it, guy's a fucking psycho, but...you said it yourself, by the time he realises the treasure's in Cuba, it'll be long gone and you'll be bathing in champagne or… paying off your student loans or some shit." Sam smiled softly, and Nora returned the smile, nodding her head.

"Fine. But we need to find out the location of this thing by tomorrow, okay? I can't risk her safety any longer."

"Deal."

Sam got up from his seat and helped Nora gather all their documents. They put them back in their backpack and headed for the street to find a taxi and go home.

Once there, Nora went to the living room and explained their finds to Víctor, who had not moved an inch since they left. He was still on the couch, reading a book, with a cigar between his lips.

Sam chose to go outside and enjoy the breathtaking view from the backyard. He lit up a cigarette and grabbed his phone, dialing his brother's number.

"Hey Nathan." He simply said when his brother picked up.

"Sam? Is everything alright?" Nathan answered, and Sam couldn't help but notice the hint of worry in his brother's tone.

"Yeah, just thought I'd say hi."

"You sure everything's fine? This is...weird."

"So me calling you is weird now?"

"Yes...no! Just...aren't you on a trip right now?"

"Yes...I don't really see how this has to do with-"

"It's just that you never call when you're treasure hunting so I'm a little...surprised." Nate explained. "How's it going?"

"Fine. We're actually getting closer and closer to the thing so that's pretty good."

"Where are you now?"

Sam proceeded to explain the whole adventure to his little brother, mentioning his return to Libertalia and everything up to now. He also mentioned Nora and the fact that they were being pursued by her crazy ex, Andrew. Nathan couldn't suppress a dry chuckle when he heard the name, and Sam understood that his brother had been acquainted with the guy. Saying that he wasn't particularly fond of him was an understatement. And a huge one, at that.

They kept talking for a little bit after Nathan had been updated on the treasure situation. They mostly talked about Elena's pregnancy and what the couple had in store for their newly acquired company, D&F Fortunes. Sam mentioned Nora's name a few times, which prompted Nathan to ask a question he'd been holding since Sam first mentioned her name. He knew his brother, and knew how he was around attractive and smart young women like Nora.

"What's the deal with Nora?"

"Huh?"

"Are you two...you know. Close." Nate insisted.

"What do you mean?"

"You know damn well what I mean. And the fact that you're avoiding the question is answer enough."

"I don't...there's nothing going on between me and Nora, if that's what you're implying. She's pretty and fun and all but…"

"But she already rejected you." Nathan pushed, knowing he would get a reaction from his brother, or his pride rather. The reaction was quick to come, in the form of a smug scoff.

"She didn't reject me. I haven't tried anything yet, that's all. And I don't intend to. I'm busy thinking about other stuff, like the treasure I've been searching."

"Hm. Okay. Sounds fake but okay."

There was a short but kinda awkward silence between the two brothers, until Nathan spoke up on the other end of the phone.

"Well shit, I didn't realize we've been talking for an hour…Elena needed me to pick her up from prenatal yoga twenty minutes ago, I should probably get going."

"Oh yeah, sure. I'll call you when this is all over, okay?"

"Alright. Take care, Sam. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"I don't know about that, but I sure won't do anything you would."

"Haha. You're real funny you know, a real funny man." Nate said in a sarcastic tone, while Sam wore an amused smirk on his face.

"I think your very pregnant wife is waiting for you Nathan. Bye."

And with this remark, Sam hung up on his little brother, not leaving him time to say goodbye. He contemplated calling him again to say goodbye properly - just in case he didn't come back or get the chance to talk to him again. But he settled on going back in the house and getting some down time before heading outside with Nora for the carnival.

His down time consisted of going over all the information they had gathered on the treasure since the beginning and find out if they'd missed something, all the while listening to music. Having his earphones in and being completely absorbed by his notes, he didn't see time pass and didn't hear when Nora knocked on his door, or when she entered the room. The sound of someone clearing their throat behind him was what startled him and brought him back to reality. She was standing in the doorway, arms crossed and an amused look on her face. She had changed her clothes and wore a pair of denim shorts, with a light grey tee tucked in it and a pair of black boots. Her hair was down for a change, and gave her face a new light.

"You coming to town?" She asked nonchalantly.

"Sure." He answered, putting his papers on his side table and getting up.

"Cool. Do you need to change?"

"Not, I'm good. We can leave now."

They both smiled at each other and soon enough, they were outside, on their way to the city center, where the carnival was in full swing.

"Aren't your mother and Victor coming?"

"Nah. My mom's tired and Victor doesn't want to leave her alone here with everything going on." Sam simply nodded, understanding Víctor.

The majority of the walk was silent, none of them wanting to bring up their research or the treasure for now. They just wanted to have a real night off, to be able to enjoy this break before going back to the rush of treasure hunting.

Their fun started the minute they reached the city center. There were parades and people in fancy costumes, most of them celebrating cuban culture and heritage. Most of the bars played loud music, and the streets looked like a giant party. Nora smiled at Sam, who was taking in the sight of the celebration. She gently grabbed his hand and led him to a bar where people were dancing. Sam let her lead him and followed without asking any questions, trusting her not to take him somewhere lame. Once they got into the bar, Nora immediately went for the counter, making her way through the crowd smoothly. She ordered a caipirinha for herself, while Sam ordered a beer.

First, they both just stood there, drinks in hand, not talking or even looking at each other. It took Nora a second and third drink to get in the mood and step within the dancing crowd. Sam didn't move, he just watched her from afar, sipping on his beer while his eyes couldn't help but scrutinize each and every single one of her movements. After some time, Nora noticed it and smiled, motioning for Sam to join her. At first, Sam just shook his head no and grabbed onto the bar counter to show that he was fine where he was, but Nora insisted and he had to admit she was hard to say no to. He finished his beer in one swift motion and went beside her on the dancefloor. Sam wasn't really one for dancing, he hadn't done it in over ten years and had never been really good at it. So it was natural that he'd be somewhat embarrassed once on the dancefloor. Sensing the awkwardness of the situation, Nora grabbed his hands and tried to get him to move a little. Seeing that he was less tense than before, she slowly started to move a little bit more, and a little bit more, until Sam was somewhat dancing along to the music. They danced for an hour or two before going outside, looking for something to eat. They found a food stand that served [insert cuban dish here] and both took a plate of it, eating while walking around in the city. It was a beautiful late spring night in Santiago, and it sure felt like it. While they were walking, Nora noticed a big crowd standing in front of a kiosk and decided to check it out. There was a band playing live music in the kiosk, and the people in the crowd were dancing along to their tunes. Nora looked at Sam and quickly grabbed his hand, leading him towards the improvised dancefloor. Soon, they were both dancing, Nora trying her best to show Sam the moves for the cuban salsa. There was a lot of laughter coming from both of them as they both realized that Sam couldn't dance for shit. They stayed on the dancefloor anyways, dancing and laughing like they had no worry in the world. They sometimes took breaks to get to a bar nearby and grab some drinks, and even did a shot contest, which ended with Nora beating Sam unexpectedly, before going back to dance a little more.

The festivities came to an end sooner than what the pair hoped. By 3 a.m., the music had stopped and people were slowly going back to their homes and hotels. Sam and Nora walked back to the house still giddy about their little night out, and fairly drunk. They did their best not to make any noise while entering the house, but their muffled laughter was actually not as muffled as they thought. They quickly climbed up the stairs and, without really thinking, they entered Nora's room, sitting on the bed as soon as the door closed and laughing without really knowing why.

As they stopped laughing, their eyes met and they just stayed like that for a moment, looking into each other's eyes. Nora's gaze slowly went to his lips, then back to his own. He had a look on his face that said "please go ahead". So she kissed him. She didn't even bother to be slow or gentle, she went straight for it. It was intense, needy and rough. She kissed him like her life depended on it, and he kissed her back the same way. When their lips parted ways, they both just stood there, out of breath, eyes closed and mouths slightly open. Just as she opened her eyes she was surprised by Sam's soft lips on hers again, but this time in a more gentle manner. She gave in the kiss and felt Sam's hands on her cheeks, his fingers on the back of her neck, gently grabbing her hair.

Before they even realized it, they were both half naked on the bed, only wearing their underwear. Sam's body was pressed on Nora's, and his hand was under her panties, thumb gently rubbing her clit while two of his fingers dug into her. They were still looking into each other's eyes, but this time they were filled with lust and pleasure. Their nose were touching and they could feel each other's warm breath on their skin. Nora's moans and whimpers became louder and louder, she could feel that she was almost there.

"Sam...I...fuck I'm coming", she moaned.

The second she said those words, Sam stopped everything, quickly slipping out of his boxers and getting Nora out of her panties. He grabbed a condom in his jeans, put it on and slowly slid into her. She gasped at the sudden feeling, her eyes closing in pleasure as he started his gentle thrusts to get her used to his presence. After a little while, Sam's thrusts became faster, and harder. He dug his face in Nora's neck, kissing and softly biting it, a few grunts and moans coming out of his mouth while his right hand supported him and his left hand was roaming the side of her body. She was a moaning and whimpering mess under him, feeling the wave of pleasure becoming stronger with every movement of his hips. Her fingers were clutching to his back, her legs wrapped around his waist. Suddenly, she found the strength in her to flip him on his back, and was now straddling his waist. She bit his earlobe and placed kisses from his neck down to his shoulder and chest, all the way to his shaft. Her fingers grazed his three bullet wounds as her eyes went up to meet his, hungry with lust and pleasure. She slipped the condom off him and gently wrapped her hand around his cock, stroking him slowly. Her lips went to the tip of his dick and her tongue teased him while her eyes were observing his reactions. He threw his head back and brought his hands to her head, grabbing her hair as she started sucking him fervently, her head bobbing up and down. When she started to taste some pre-cum, she stopped her movement and ignored Sam's noises of protest. She licked him from his cock to his neck and planted kisses on his tattoo before rubbing her core against his hard throbbing cock slowly. This caused him to throw his head back and groan, making Nora smirk. She sat up, placed her hands on his chest and started to lower herself onto him, taking him entirely and gasping at the sensation. God did he feel good inside of her. She slowly started her movement, sliding up and down on him, throwing her head back in pleasure. Suddenly she felt Sam's body close to hers as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her. His lips met hers again in a sloppy kiss as Nora rocked her hips on him, slowly getting them both closer to their release. Sam broke the kiss and let his lips drag down to her neck, leaving small bites and marks and using it as a way to stifle his grunts of pleasure. Nora's moans got louder with every thrust of her hips, this angle making Sam hit her sweet spot over and over. She could feel herself getting closer and closer to the edge and after a few more movements, she titled her head back and almost screamed out Sam's name, feeling an intense wave of pleasure taking over her. It didn't take long for Sam to join her in his orgasm.

When they were both done, Sam laid himself next to Nora, both taking a moment to catch their breath. They stayed like that for a little while, panting and sweating, before Nora turned on her side to have a better look at Sam's body. Her eyes couldn't help but linger on the three scars on his stomach, and she was itching to ask about them. Sam noticed it and took the matter in his own hands.

"I tried to escape from prison and things, uh, didn't quite go as planned." He smiled awkwardly, Nora's eyes shooting up to meet his.

"Sounds like an interesting story. I'd like to hear more of it, if you don't mind."

"I doubt you want to. It's a long one."

"I've got time to kill."

And so he told her everything about Avery's treasure, Panama and the 13 years spent in prison. She listened carefully to each word, genuinely interested by his story. When he was over, she felt like she could tell him anything, and told him about her relationship with Andrew and how it ended. Sam listened to every single word, happy that she finally opened up to him about the infamous Andrew, but at the same time getting angrier the more he heard about him. As she told her story, Nora let a few tears fall from her eyes and onto her cheeks, and Sam dried them softly, before placing a soft kiss on her lips.


End file.
